BL  240  .S68  1902 

Smyth,  Newman,  1843-1925. 

Through  science  to  faith 


INO, 


THROUGH   SCIENCE   TO   FAITH 


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THROUGH    SCIENCE 
TO  FAITH 


BY 

NEWMAN    SMYTH 


Knowing  that  Nature  never  did  betray 
The  heart  that  loved  her 

Wordsworth 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1902 


Copyright,  1902 
By  Charles  Scribner's  Sons 

Published,  February,  1902 


UNIVERSITY    I'RKSS    •    JOHN    WILSON 
AND    SON    •    C;  AMIIKIDGK,     U.   S.   A. 


PREFACE 

This  volume  contains  a  course  of  lectures  which  were 
given  before  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston  during  the 
winter  months  of  1900-1901.  It  was  their  object  to 
answer  the  inquiry  whether,  through  the  science  of  the 
century  which  was  then  passing  away,  the  coming  age 
might  enter  into  richer  possession  of  the  spiritual 
faiths  which  have  been  man's  heritage  through  all  the 
centuries. 

Modern  science  is  a  new  appeal  to  nature.  Our  in- 
herited religious  faiths  cannot  maintain  their  power, 
and  they  ought  not  to  survive,  if  they  fail  to  accept 
fully  nature's  answer  to  the  latest  appeal  of  our  sci- 
ence, and  if  they  do  not  search  diligently  for  the  true 
interpretation  of  new  disclosures  of  life.  The  teachers 
of  divinity  to  the  coming  age  will  need,  as  an  essential 
element  of  the  instruction  in  schools  of  theology,  a 
working  knowledge  of  modern  methods  of  scientific 
inquiry.  For  the  assurance  of  faith  cannot  be  main- 
tained from  a  fortified  critical  position  outside  the 
province  of  the  evolutionary  science;  it  may  be  won 
by  positive  participation  in  the  work  of  the  scientific 
world.  Some  acquaintance  especially  with  biological 
studies  and  results  should  be  made  a  required  part  of 
any  thorough  education  for  the  modern  ministry  of  the 


^  PREFACE 

word  of  life.  In  this  promising  direction  of  inquiry 
the  younger  ministry  may  find  from  the  following  chap- 
ters some  suggestive  aid  for  their  further  studies. 

This  book  is  not  intended  for  teachers  only,  but  more 
generally  for  readers  who  would  inform  themselves  con- 
cerning the  scope  and  tendencies  of  the  evolutionary 
science  since  Darwin's  time,  especially  in  its  relation  to 
our  most  cherished  human  faiths  and  hopes.  We  have 
hud  enough,  indeed,  of  too  hastily  conclusive  and  often 
unverified  popular  articles  concerning  the  religious 
teachings  of  modern  science ;  there  is  need  of  pains- 
taking and  appreciative  sifting  of  the  results  of  modern 
investigations  of  nature  in  order  that  we  may  under- 
stand their  real  bearing  upon  the  highest  problems  of 
human  concern.  To  many  persons  who  are  too  busy 
to  searcli  for  themselves  among  the  strictly  scientific 
sources  of  knowledge,  but  who  also  are  too  thoughtful 
not  to  be  interested  in  such  inquiries,  this  volume  may 
come  as  an  endeavor  to  meet  this  need. 

As  the  lectures,  which  are  here  revised  for  publica- 
tion, were  originally  prepared  for  a  general  audience, 
technical  expressions  and  too  detailed  scientific  discus- 
sions liave  been  avoided;  but  for  the  aid  of  students 
who  may  wish  to  pursue  these  inquiries  further,  and 
witli  criticid  minul(!nuss  at  various  points,  numerous 
rcfficiHcs  to  scientific  authorities  and  contributions 
have  )>cen  added  in  the  foot-notes.  Many  of  the  articles 
cited  contain  fidl  summaries  of  the  literature  of  the 
subjects  to  which  they  refer. 

To  scientific  investigators,  likewise,  —  the  author 
ventures  to  liope  —  it   may  not  seem  a  useless  or  un- 


PREFACE  Yii 

welcome  endeavor,  if  a  guest  in  tlieir  laboratories  and 
an  admirer  of  their  patient  and  ingenious  researches, 
would  take  the  accepted  results  of  their  inquiries,  and 
seek  to  understand  and  interpret  them  in  their  larger 
relations  to  the  outlying  realm  of  human  thought  and 
life.  He  trusts  that  this  book  —  the  fruitage  in  his 
religious  thinking  of  seeds  gathered  from  their  fields  — 
may  be  received  in  scientific  circles  as  a  grateful  recog- 
nition, from  the  theological  side,  of  the  value  of  faithful 
scientific  work  not  only  to  the  material  welfare  of  the 
world,  but  also  for  the  higher  moral  and  spiritual  life 
of  men. 

I  would  mention  my  personal  indebtedness  for  aid  in 
the  laboratory,  and  for  valuable  suggestions,  to  Professor 
S.  I.  Smith,  and  to  Dr.  W.  R.  Coe  of  the  Sheffield  Sci- 
entific School  of  Yale  University;  and  readers  of  this 
volume  will  be  indebted  also  with  me  to  Dr.  Coe  for  his 
very  excellent  drawings  of  the  diagrams  which  illus- 
trate the  contents  of  that  most  wonderful  thing  in  the 
world,  the  living  cell,  and  the  fascinating  mystery  of 
its  process  of  self-division  and  multiplication. 

NEWMAN   SMYTH. 

New  Haven,  Comn.,  Jan.  1,  1902. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Page 

The  New  Point  of  View 1 


CHAPTER  II 
Evolution  as  Revelation 25 

CHAPTER  in 
The  Fact  of  Direction  in  Nature 50 

CHAPTER  IV 
Direction  in  the  History  of  Living  Cells    ....       68 

CHAPTER  V 
Intelligent  Character  of  Direction  in  Nature   .     .       95 

CHAPTER  VI 
Moral  Character  of  Direction  in  Nature   .     .     .     .     116 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Significance  of  the  Beautiful 133 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Coming  of  the  Individual 160 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IX 

Page 
Retuogkkssion  in  E volition  and  Man's  Fall     .     .     .     193 


CHAPTER  X 
Restokation  in  Evoh  tion 205 

CHAPTER   XT 
'I'm:  Pi:inc'ipm:  or  Comi-lhtion 228 

CHAPTER    XII 
'I'm;  PnuiUKTic  Valli:  ok  Unfinished  Natuke    .     .     .     250 


INDKX 277 


THROUGH  SCIENCE  TO  FAITH 


THROUGH   SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  NEW  POINT   OF  VIEW 

Nearly  two  centuries  ago  a  young  man,  who  had 
begun  to  study  divinity,  wrote  to  a  theologian,  "  I 
design  the  search  after  truth  as  the  business  of  my 
life."  Some  decades  later  in  the  same  century  an- 
other young  man  who  had  recently  published  his  thesis 
as  a  doctor  of  medicine  wrote  to  an  older  man  who  had 
become  a  chief  scientific  authority  of  his  time,  these 
words  concerning  the  common  object  of  their  pursuit: 
"  This  is  your  view,  also,  glorious  man.  We  are  inves- 
tigating for  truth  only;  we  seek  that  which  is  true. 
Why  then  should  I  contend  with  you  ?  " 

The  first  youth  who  at  school  proposed  to  make  truth 
the  business  of  his  life,  afterwards  became  known  as 
Bishop  Butler,  the  author  of  that  famous  Analogy 
which  far  down  into  our  own  time  has  been  used  as 
a  text-book  in  our  colleges,  and  which  has  proved  a 
noble  discipline  to  many  minds  in  search  for  truth. 
The  other  student,  Caspar  Friedrich  Wolff,  who  had 
questioned  in  his  thesis  the  prevalent  biology  of  his 
day,  succeeded  in  finding  truth  which  has  entered  into 
the  science  of  the  present  age.     The  common  desire  to 

1 


2  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

follow  after  truth  only,  which  was  manifested  by  the 
theologian  and  the  biologist,  is  the  spirit  in  which  all 
inquiries  into  nature  and  divinity  should  be  made. 
Tlieir  agreement  in  the  pure  love  of  truth  near  the 
beginning  of  the  modern  era  of  investigation  may  be 
regarded  as  a  happy  omen  of  some  future  harmony  of 
all  science  and  religion.  It  is  in  this  spirit  that  we  are 
to  seek  again  and  again  to  interpret  nature.  Distrust 
of  nature's  fact  w^ere  unbelief  in  nature's  God.  We 
must  follow  the  course  of  nature,  if  we  would  know 
how  the  living  One  has  gone  before  us  in  the  way. 

During  the  century  just  ended  two  epochs  in  the 
relation  of  science  and  faith,  broadly  speaking,  may  be 
distinguished;  and  a  third  and  better  era  is  dawning 
at  another  century's  beginning.  The  first  period  was 
one  of  religious  alarm  and  scientific  conflict.  The 
appearance  of  Darwin's  books  on  the  Origin  of  Species 
and  the  Descent  of  Man,  was  accepted  as  a  challenge  to 
tlie  then  prevalent  religious  view  of  the  creation,  and 
a  period  of  warfare  ensued.  That  was  one  era,  and  it 
was  followed  by  another,  which  may  be  described  as  the 
time  of  truce  between  scientific  writers  and  theologians. 
There  lias  been  of  late  years  a  period  of  compromise 
))etwcen  science  and  religion.  Naturalists  have  learned 
to  avoid  needless  collision  with  man's  religious  faiths, 
and  tlieologians  liave  become  careful  so  to  state  their 
Ijcliefs  as  to  avoid  conflict  with  scientific  theories. 
This  lias  been  largely  a  negative  and  critical  era.  But 
Hm;  tliinl  «'pocli  is  coming — it  is  already  come;  it 
follows  naturally  after  the  cnis  of  conflict  and  of  com- 
promise.    It  is  the  age  of  reccmstniction.     It  is  to  be 


THE   NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  3 

a  positive  era,  a  productive  age,  requiring  for  its  task 
no  longer  the  agitator  or  the  obstructionist,  the  icono- 
clastic scientist  or  the  controversial  divine  ;  but  it  calls 
for  deeper  investigations  and  for  larger  interpretations 
both  from  its  science  and  its  faith. 

The  older  natural  theology,  in  which  but  a  generation 
ago  Christian  faiths  might  still  find  safe  and  comfort- 
able shelter,  has  become  uninhabitable ;  the  new  is  yet 
to  be  built.  The  materials  for  it  are  already  abundant 
and  rich.  Fresh  inquiries  are  inviting;  larger  vistas 
are  opening;  nature  is  becoming  more  spiritually  fas- 
cinating even  to  the  scientific  lover  of  her  truth.  Par- 
ticularly during  the  last  half  of  the  past  century  has 
science  made  a  vast  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of 
living  nature.  Biology  has  opened  up  a  marvellous 
field  for  exploration  which  before  had  been  almost  an 
unknown  land. 

Our  science,  it  is  true,  must  still  strike  midway  into 
the  path  of  life  on  the  earth.  We  cannot  go  back  to 
some  distant  and  lowly  point  and  say.  There  was  the 
beginning  of  all.  Nor  can  we  say  on  any  visible  height 
of  being.  This  is  the  end  of  all.  Our  knowledge  in  its 
utmost  extension  is  of  intermediate  things.  But  it  is 
true  knowledge  so  far  as  it  goes.  Midway,  and  for 
some  distance,  we  have  followed  with  scientific  care 
the  course  of  life  far  enough  to  know  something  of  its 
direction  from  the  distant  past  and  of  its  possible  ten- 
dencies beyond  our  present  experience.  In  this  knowl- 
edge of  life  and  its  history,  the  larger  part  of  which  has 
been  gained  during  the  closing  decades  of  the  century, 
a  new  point  of  view  has  been  won.     From  it  all  our 


4  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

natural  and  Christian  faiths  are  to  be  resurveyed.  They 
are  to  be  observed  anew  from  higher  ground  and  in 
larger  horizons.  We  have  learned  from  a  century's 
science  that  we  are  no  longer  to  think  of  the  world 
and  its  Maker  under  Paley's  familiar  similitude  of  a 
watch  and  its  designer;  for  we  now  know  that  things 
have  not  been  put  together  in  nature  as  an  artisan 
would  assemble  the  several  parts  of  a  machine ;  we 
have  now  to  consider  all  things  around  us,  and  the 
constellations  in  the  skies,  as  One  of  old  taught  the 
disciples  to  consider  the  lilies,  how  they  grow.  For 
the  new  science  of  nature  is  a  study  of  the  method  of 
its  growth.  It  is  characterized  in  general  by  the  word 
evolution.  But  that  word  is  far  too  elastic  to  serve 
as  a  scientifically  definitive  term.  An  assortment  of 
diverse  views  may  be  bound  up  by  it  as  by  a  rubber 
band.  It  may  cover  alike  much  science  and  consider- 
able ignorance.  It  may  be  employed  generally  to  desig- 
nate the  modern  scientific  conception  of  nature ;  and  it 
may  be  used  precisely  to  designate  a  special  and  now 
outgrowTi  view  of  the  creation  which  obtained  over  a 
hundred  years  ago,  —  the  view  that  all  creatures  pre- 
existed in  miniature  in  the  Qgg^  or  were  preformed  in 
the  germ.  No  close  thinker  can  defme  his  position 
now  by  a  word  which  has  been  so  overworked.  We 
niiiy  all  call  ourselves  evolutionists,  and  speak  popu- 
larly of  the  evolution  of  everything  under  the  sun;  the 
real  question  would  remain,  what  kind  of  evolutionists 
are  we? 

The  new  point  of  view  might  be  characterized  still 
generally  as  the  ])i()k)gical  conception.     Biology  is  the 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  5 

science,  almost  the  new  science  of  living  matter.  It 
includes  comprehensively  all  investigations  of  the  pro- 
cesses, forces,  conditions,  and  laws,  which  may  be 
known  in  the  organic  world.  In  its  larger  scope,  and 
in  relation  to  the  outlying  problems  of  life,  it  passes 
into  a  philosophy  of  the  living  world.  Herbert 
Spencer's  Principles  of  Biology^  for  instance,  constitute 
a  part  of  his  system  of  philosophy.  If  we  find  that  our 
modern  biology  has  discovered  any  ruling  ideas  in  the 
organic  realm,  and  if  it  has  followed  them  far  enough 
through  the  history  of  life  to  be  sure  of  them,  we  should 
take  such  principles  of  life  up  into  our  philosophy,  and 
use  them  in  our  effort  to  become  masters  of  the  world 
in  our  thought  of  it.  Spiritual  mastery  of  the  world, 
we  may  be  sure,  cannot  be  won  except  by  discovery 
and  use  of  the  actual  principles  which  run  through 
nature. 

In  this  discussion  of  questions  which  lead  up  to  the 
higher  interpretation  of  life  we  shall  start  from  the 
naturalist's  point  of  view.  It  shall  be  our  purpose  to 
seek,  especially  among  recent  biological  materials,  for 
signs  and  evidences  of  the  constitutive  principles  of 
nature  ;  and  through  these,  so  far  as  they  may  be  re- 
vealed, to  find  some  surer  and  clearer  interpretation  of 
our  life.  Our  method  will  be  a  simple,  but  positive 
method.  We  shall  not  seek  to  adapt  science  to  religion, 
or  to  impose  faith  upon  science.  We  shall  seek  to  learn 
first  from  the  biologists  the  significant  facts  which  they 
have  observed.  Secondly,  we  shall  accept  and  make 
the  most  of  their  theories  or  explanations  of  the  observed 
facts,  so  far  as  they  may  be  made  to  go.     Then,  thirdly, 


6  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

we  shall  inquire  for  ourselves,  what  may  be  their  higher 
and  larger  significance  for  our  rational  and  religious 
conception  of  the  world.  We  shall  thus  hope  in  a 
positive  nieth(xl,  and  not  merely  by  a  critical  marking 
time,  to  make  a  fresh  start  at  least  in  the  way  towards 
a  more  scientifically  spiritual  understanding  of  the 
creation  —  of  its  underlying  unit}^,  of  its  informing 
principles,  of  its  real  continuities  through  all  its 
spheres,  and  of  its  possible  completions  beyond  our 
present  knowledge. 

At  the  outset  we  would  emphasize  the  vital  religious 
importance  of  the  new  inquiries  into  nature  which  may 
now  ]je  conducted  in  this  method.  If  at  times  such 
scientific  excursions  may  seem  to  lead  into  regions 
remote  from  our  practical  interest  in  life,  they  will  be 
fomid  to  return  ere  long  with  some  fresh  contribution 
to  our  personal  creeds  for  the  conduct  of  life.  For  our 
present  endeavor  will  be  much  more  than  a  temporizing 
effort,  sucli  as  the  theologians  have  so  often  made,  to 
arrange  some  common  terms  in  which  science  and  faith 
m;iy  dwell  amicably  together,  like  boarders  in  the  same 
house.  We  shall  seek  rather  to  learn  and  to  own 
their  natural  relationship.  We  would  bring  to  mutual 
recogiiiti(jn  })rinciples  in  which  they  have  a  common 
heritage.  If  tliere  are  such  principles,  and  we  may 
knf)w  tliem,  —  constitutive  and  vital  principles  which  run 
up  and  down  through  all  nature  and  life,  from  the  least 
and  lowliest  to  the  heights  of  being  and  of  destiny— 
8troii,L^%  iiifi-iist:i])l(i  i)rinciplcs,  upon  which  as  on  in- 
visil)le  but  continuous  laws  all  the  spheres  are  threaded; 
— -  then  surely  these  i)rinciples  are  the  great  powers  of 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  T 

nature  and  of  life  for  us  to  lay  hold  of  with  a  firm 
religious  trust.  We  can  build  our  highest  religious 
faiths  safely,  if  we  may  build  them  on  the  sure  foun- 
dations of  nature. 

On  the  very  threshold,  however,  of  such  inquiry,  we 
are  met  by  two  difficulties  which  seem  at  first  sight  to 
bar  oLir  way  in  this  direction.  One  of  these  obstacles 
lies  in  the  admitted  fact  that  biology  is  itself  an  im- 
mature science,  —  almost  the  youngest  of  the  whole 
family  of  the  modern  sciences.  It  is  hardly  twenty-five 
years  since  it  became  a  well  equipped  working  science, 
and  it  is  not  yet  half-endowed  in  our  Universities. 
The  name  compounded  for  one  of  its  chief  branches 
of  investigation,  Cytology,  or  the  science  of  the  living 
cell,  is  almost  an  unknown  term  even  to  the  educated 
public.  Moreover,  in  the  current  numbers  of  the 
biological  magazines,  not  only  do  different  theories 
come  into  frequent  collisions,  but  also  the  investigators 
do  not  always  report  that  they  have  seen  precisely  the 
same  things  through  their  microscopes.  Many  im- 
portant facts  in  the  behavior  of  living  cells  are  not 
well  known  as  yet,  and  indeed  living  nature  sometimes 
seems  to  have  an  almost  feminine  power  of  becoming 
most  fascinatingly  elusive  just  when  a  man  is  most  eager 
for  some  decisive  manifestation  of  her  meaning.  Many 
biological  views  which  attract  attention  must  still  be 
regarded  as  tentative.  No  one  theory  of  heredity  can 
claim  as  yet  general  acceptance.  The  domain  of  life  is 
too  large  and  wonderful,  and  the  processes  of  nature  are 
too  subtly  involved  in  the  whole  spiritual  mystery  of 
being  to  be  easily  comprehended  within  some  single  and 


8  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

simple  formula,  which  some  over-confident  investigator 
may  propose  as  the  solution  of  the  whole  matter. 

Nowliere  more  than  in  the  biological  field  is  there 
need  of  that  virtue  which  Dr.  Chalmers  so  happily 
characterized  as  the  modesty  of  true  science.  The 
prt'scnt  attitude  of  our  ablest  investigators  in  this  field 
of  research  is  one  characterized  by  much  reserve  and 
hesitancy  of  judgment.  And  wlien  all  possible  in- 
ferences seem  to  have  been  drawn  from  the  known 
facts,  the  only  way  of  progress  is  to  return  to  new 
investigations.  These  are  being  made  in  our  biological 
laboratories  by  many  and  most  skilful  observers.  Not 
lonfr  since  a  fresh  student  in  one  of  these  laboratories 
brought  to  his  work  a  blank  note-book,  the  alternate 
pages  of  which  were  neatly  labelled  "observations," 
and  "philosophical  deductions  from  observations."  His 
professor  told  him  that  the  division  was  right,  but  that 
he  thought  he  would  need  far  less  space  for  his  philo- 
sophical deductions.  Biology  at  the  present  time  is 
mainly  engaged  in  making  observations.  But  obser- 
vations must  in  time  be  arranged  under  some  idea, 
fcitili/.cd,  as  it  were,  by  some  stimulating  thought,  if 
they  arc  to  be  made  fruitful ;  and  the  philosopher  with 
his  ideas  and  interpretations  naturally  follows  the  in- 
vestiirator.  It  is  his  task  to  institute  what  mio-lit  be 
calliMl  the  higher  criticism  of  science.  Interpretative 
])i(jlogy  may  be  called  the  higher  biology.  The  two 
should  not  ])e  confounded,  —  the  work  of  the  single-eyed 
observer,  and  the  task  of  the  rational  interpreter ;  but 
each  serves  the  othci-,  and  the  work  of  both  is  necessary 
to  a  fompletc  scientiiic;  and  rational  conception  of  nature 
and  lifo. 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  9 

The  present  confessed  uncertainty  of  much  biological 
science  may  teach  us  caution,  and  keep  us  from  vent- 
uring our  faiths  too  largely  out  upon  any  prevalent 
theory  of  life  ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  effort  to  think  bio- 
logically, that  is,  to  think  under  biological  forms  of 
conception  and  in  relation  to  biological  principles,  is 
now  a  possible  mode  of  thought,  and  it  is  justified  by  the 
knowledge  which  has  been  alread}^  won.  For  notwith- 
standing all  uncertainties  many  important  facts  of  bio- 
logy are  well  ascertained,  and  certain  processes  of  living 
matter  have  been  followed  with  definite  observations,  so 
that  vital  principles  to  some  extent  may  be  deduced 
from  our  present  biological  knowledge.  By  means  also 
of  the  different  theories,  with  which  investigators  are 
seeking  to  light  up  the  field  of  life,  we  may  follow 
more  intelligently  and  confidently  the  rational  ways 
along  which  nature  from  her  lowly  origins  has  been  led 
with  ever  increasing  spiritual  ascendency  up  to  the 
heights  of  man's  being,  and  his  life  of  free  thought  and 
love.  In  short  evolution  as  a  general  conception  of  the 
world  and  of  the  methods  of  life,  within  the  past  fifty 
years  of  scientific  observation,  has  advanced  fully  far 
enough  to  require  now  and  to  justify  the  construction 
of  a  new  natural  theology ;  and  that  in  its  turn  will  lead 
to  some  reconstruction  of  Christian  theology. 

We  offer  therefore  no  further  justification  for  our 
task  than  this,  that  it  is  now  possible  to  attempt  it,  and 
that  its  achievement  is  greatly  to  be  desired. 

The  other  difiiculty  which  has  been  raised,  is  inde- 
pendent of  the  extent,  greater  or  less,  of  our  scientific 
knowledge;  it  is  an  objection  which  would  be  always 


10  riinouGii  SCIENCE  to  faith 

fatal  to  this  endeavor,  if  at  any  time  it  were  true.     It  is 
said  that  there  is  an  impassable  gulf  fixed  between  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual  spheres,  and  that  we  cannot 
reason  from  the  one  to  the  other.     Fanciful  analogies, 
or  illuminative   imaginations,   it  is    admitted,   may    be 
drawn  from  the  natural  for  the  help  of  man's  spiritual 
thought ;  but  it  is  asked,  can  any  true  analogy,  or  real 
continuity  of  principles,  be    followed   from    tlie   lower 
spheres  straight  through  the  ascending  orders  of  nature 
up  to  the  very  highest  and  into  the  spiritual  world? 
Curiously  enough  this  question    has   been    raised,  and 
this  obstacle  is  put  in  our  way,  both  in  the  name  of  sci- 
ence and  of  religion.     Coming  from  opposite  directions 
and  proceeding  to  different  conclusions,  some  scientific 
students  and  some  spiritual  philosophei'S  meet  for  the 
moment  at  this  conunon  point,  and  unite  in  warning  off 
any  attempt  to  reason  either  up  or  down  from  the  nat- 
ural to  the  spiritual.     Leave  to  us,  say  the  former,  our 
science,  and  we  will  leave  to  you,  as  beyond  our  ken,  your 
faitli.    Attempt  to  connect  the  two,  and  you  will  only  suc- 
ceed in  confusing  science,  and  introducing  doubt  into  the 
domain  of  faith.   And  some  of  the  latter,  the  i)hilosophers 
and  theologians,  likewise,  will  go  on  their  separate  way, 
(juite  content  to  affirm  that  man  stands  wholly  apart  in 
tlie  creation,  and  that  his  supreme  individuality  is  not 
to  be  understood  as  nature's  grand    climax.     Thus    in 
this  particular  these  two  find  themselves  for  the  moment 
in  agreement, — the  naturalist  who  holds    his    science 
wlioUy  apart  from  his  faith,  and  the  theologian  who 
liolds  liis  faith  regardless  of  any  science.     Both  fail  to 
(hsccru  ih(;  underlying  unity  of  the  creation. 


THE  NEW  POINT   OF   VIEW  11 

The  question  thus  brought  before  us  is  this  :  Is  the 
created  universe  one  order,  and  has  it  come  to  pass  in 
one  process  of  development  ?  Or  does  it  consist  of  sep- 
arate reahns,  such  as  the  inorganic  and  the  organic, 
matter  and  mind,  the  natural  and  the  spiritual,  which 
are  not  bound  together  in  any  process  of  development  ? 
Are  we  to  regard  the  creation  as  a  process  still  going 
on,  like  an  unfinished  drama,  or  are  the  worlds  and  all 
things  therein  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  collection  of 
ready-made  products  of  all  kinds  and  sizes,  like  a  vast 
department  store  ?  If  we  take  the  answer  from  science 
and  say.  Nature  is  not  a  patchwork,  its  parts  and  colors 
artificially  matched  and  fitted  into  some  semblance  of 
design;  nature  is  a  continuous  weaving  of  subtle  but 
unbroken  threads ;  if,  in  a  word,  we  say  evolution ;  then 
the  further  question  immediately  arises,  In  what  does 
its  unity  consist?  What  Haeckel  in  the  title  of  his 
last  book  calls  the  Riddle  of  the  Universe^  is  not  the 
simple  riddle  of  one  soulless  substance  which  he  thinks 
it  is  in  his  drear  denial  of  all  divinity ;  the  problem,  the 
ultimate  mechanical  and  spiritual  problem  of  the  uni- 
verse, is  a  double  problem,  partly  scientific,  and  partly 
philosophic,  partly  a  question  of  fact,  and  partly  a  ques- 
tion of  interpretation :  Is  the  world  one,  and.  How  is  it 
one  ? 

In  this  introductory  chapter  we  take  as  the  point  of 
departure  for  the  subsequent  inquiry  the  scientific  belief 
that  nature  is  one.  Evidences  of  this  fundamental 
postulate  will  appear  as  we  shall  proceed.  The  answer 
to  the  question,  How  is  it  one  ?  is  the  interpretation  of 
the  world  which  in  the  course  of  our  inquiries  we  are  to 


12  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

seek  from  the  nature-process  itself.  As  our  immediate 
object  is  to  make  clear  the  starting-point,  we  may  sketch 
here,  more  with  an  etcher's  lines  than  with  a  detailed 
description,  the  new  view  of  nature  as  one  process  of 
development. 

l-'rom  the  scientific  side  the  presumption  has  become 
immense  that  there  have  been  no  real  breaks  in  the 
evolution  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  Apparent  gaps 
there  may  be,  which  no  knowledge  of  ours  can  fill  up ; 
but  there  is  no  fissure  anywhere  that  runs  clear  through 
to  the  foundation  of  the  world.  Because  we  cannot 
see  the  bottom  of  a  chasm,  however  we  may  peer  into 
its  depths,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  a  bottomless 
abyss.  We  may  not  repeat  in  any  scientific  account  of 
things  the  story  so  often  told  in  local  traditions  of  the 
lake  which  has  no  bottom.  That  simply  means  that  no 
man  as  yet  may  have  brought  a  long  enough  line  to 
find  it.  Nature,  our  science  now  knows  enough  to 
afiirm,  undergirds  the  worlds  with  her  strong  continu- 
ities. This  first  article  of  scientific  faith  in  the  unity  of 
tilings  relates  specifically  to  their  genetic  oneness,  — 
their  unity,  that  is,  of  descent.  The  creation  is  genet- 
ically one  —  one  in  its  birth  and  growth. 

AVe  may  appreciate  the  conclusive  force  of  this  belief 
in  llie  unity  of  the  world  around  us,  if  we  review  the  dis- 
coveries of  tlie  relationshi[)S  between  things  which  have 
Ixjen  made  during  the  course  of  the  past  century's  science. 

One  of  the  first  of  these  disclosures  of  the  unity  of 
the  world  is  known  as  the  law  of  the  conservation  of 
energy.     It  is  iKjt  poetry  only  which  bids  us  regard  all 


THE  NEW  POINT   OF   VIEW  13 

things  as  "  blossomings  of  one  tree  "  ;  it  is  sober  scien- 
tific physics  which  teaches  us  to  find  a  constant  sum 
of  energy  through  all  its  ceaseless  transformations. 
There  is  one  energy  commutable  into  the  different 
forms  of  energy  of  the  physical  world,  and  the  same 
always  in  its  quantity  (within  any  closed  system).  In 
other  words,  nature  tickets  no  form  of  energy  as  not 
transferable,  and  good  for  this  passage  only  ;  and  in 
nature's  continuous  working  no  energy  seems  wasted  or 
lost.  This  discovery  of  the  unity  of  energy  is  the 
most  fruitful  conception  which  has  been  introduced 
into  physical  science.  The  first  comprehensive  state- 
ment of  the  law  of  conservation  of  energy  was  published 
by  Mohr  in  1837;  but  our  knowledge  of  it  is  due  not 
to  the  brilliant  discover}^  of  any  one  thinker,  but  rather 
to  the  accumulated  science  of  all  this  modern  time. 

Another  signal  discovery  of  unity  has  been  made  in 
the  organic  kingdom.  In  the  year  1838  a  botanist, 
Schleiden,  showed  that  all  plants  are  built  up  of  certain 
simple  structural  units  which  he  called  cells,  and  he 
discovered  that  the  origin  of  the  plant  life  is  from  a 
single  cell ;  the  succeeding  year  a  physiologist,  Schwann, 
found  that  the  same  observations  were  true  of  animals ; 
animal  tissues  likewise  are  built  up  of  cells,  and  ever}^ 
animal  life  proceeds  from  an  egg-cell.  This  was  a 
most  interesting  discovery  of  the  fundamental  unity  of 
all  living  nature.  The  original  bricks,  so  to  speak,  used 
in  building  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  are  sim- 
ilar, and  the  method  of  laying  them  is  much  the  same. 
It  is  now  demonstrated  that  there  is  no  radical  differ- 
ence, no  fundamental  distinction  in  kind,  between  the 
vegetable  and  the  animal  kingdoms. 


14  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

If  you  examine  under  a  microscope  a  drop  of  water 
from  a  pool  which  is  slightly  colored  with  a  diffused 
green,  you  will  find  within  it  as  the  cause  of  its  green- 
ish tinge  numbers  of  a  small  organism,  called  Euglena, 
which  move  rapidly  about,  often  changing  their  form  as 
they  move;  which  have  spots  of  chlorophyll  —  the 
coloring  matter  of  leaves  —  within  their  minute  bodies, 
and  wliich  also  may  be  seen  under  a  high  power  of  the 
microscope  to  have  a  mouth.  They  feed  both  as  plants 
and  animals  feed,  partly  by  means  of  their  chlorophyll, 
and  partly  through  their  mouths,  partly  from  inorganic 
matter,  and  partly  from  other  living  matter,  feeding  as 
plants  by  daytime  in  the  sunshine,  and  as  cannibals  in 
the  night.  So  this  Euglena  has  been  claimed  by  differ- 
ent naturalists  as  belonging  both  to  the  animal  and  the 
vegetaljle  kingdom.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  the  bot- 
anists or  the  zoologists  may  best  claim  it.  Indeed  our 
most  skilled  naturalists  differ  in  their  classification  of 
several  lowly  organisms  which  present  "  a  puzzling  com- 
biiiation  of  animal  and  vegetable  characters."  "The 
important  point,"  says  Professor  Parker,  "  for  the  stu- 
dent to  recognize  is  that  these  boundaries  are  artificial, 
and  that  there  are  no  scientific  frontiers  in  nature."^ 
The  conclusion  which  our  eminent  American  botanist. 
Professor  Asa  Gra}',  reached  years  ago,  has  been  con- 
firmed ])y  subsequent  researches:  "The  fact  is,  that  a 
new  article  has  recently  been  added  to  the  scientific 
creed,  —  the  essential  oneness  of  the  two  kingdoms  of 
organic  nature."  ^ 

1  Klpmentarij  Biology,  p.  182. 

-  Natural  Science  and  Relifjion,  ]>.  12. 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  15 

More  recent  researches  have  brought  out  even  more 
curious  similarities  between  plant  and  animal  life  than 
those  resemblances  in  their  methods  of  nutrition  and  in 
some  points  of  their  conduct  which  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  this  new  article  of  the  scientific  creed.  More- 
over, botanists  are  now  saying  that  "  the  movements 
by  which  the  parts  of  fixed  plants  assume  and  maintain 
through  life  their  position,  are  due  to  the  co-operation 
of  orofans  of  sensation  and  organs  of  motion."  We  are 
assured  that  there  is  "  a  sense  of  gravitation  "  in  plants ; 
that  the  apex  of  a  plant  which  turns  towards  the  earth 
(geotropic),  is  "  a  percipient  organ " ;  that  "  a  brain 
function  "  may  be  ascribed  to  the  sensitive  apex  of  tlie 
root ;  and  one  observer  claims  to  have  traced  ''  a  con- 
tinuous fibrillar  structure  "  in  the  substance  of  the  cells 
(cytoplasm),  by  means  of  which  stimuli  may  be  trans- 
mitted in  the  motions  of  plants.^ 

Man  also  is  included  in  the  unity  of  this  structural 
plan.  The  Hebrew  psalmist  said  of  old  in  his  childlike 
wonder  :  "  Thine  eyes  did  see  mine  unperfect  substance, 
and  in  thy  book  were  all  my  members  written,  which 
day  by  day  were  fashioned,  when  as  yet  there  was  none 
of  them."  With  no  less  wonder,  the  reverent  eyes  of 
science,  through  the  partial  lifting  of  the  veil  from  the 
holy  mystery  of  life's  origins,  may  now  see  how  that 
unperfect  substance  has  been  organized,  and  these 
members  fashioned,  even  as  lowliest  plant  has  grown, 
and  humblest  creature  has  been  formed  from  the  proto- 

1  See  Nature,  August  15,  1901,  p.  372  :  Journal  Royal  Mic.  Soc,  Aug. 
1901,  p.  437.  Also  Dr.  Francis  Darwin's  remarks  at  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association,  1901.  B.  NSmec,  Die  Reizleitung  und  die  reizleitenden 
Strukturen  bei  den  PJianzen. 


16  THROUGH   SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

pbismic  germ,  and  by  the  multiplying  cell :  we  too  are 
physiologically  one,  structurally  and  vitally  one,  with 
all  living  nature.  When  Saint  Francis  in  his  spiritual 
ecstasy  went  through  the  forests  and  the  fields  of  sunny 
Italv  callinrr  tlie  animals  his  brothers,  and  the  birds  his 
little  sisters,  he  was  far  nearer  than  he  knew  to  the  sober 
truth  of  the  great  biological  generalization  of  modern 
science  that  all  living  nature  is  of  one  descent  and 
constitutes  one  relationship. 

When  all  this,  however,  has  been  admitted,  the 
question  will  be  raised :  Are  there  not  still  left  some 
wide  gaps  in  nature  across  which  science  cannot  throw 
any  material  bridge  ?  What  shall  be  said  of  the  differ- 
ence between  life  on  the  one  side,  and  the  inorganic 
world  on  the  other?  Has  that  fixed  gulf  been  bridged 
by  any  chemist  ?  Can  we  analyze  the  vital  phenomena 
of  irritability,  or  of  reproduction,  or  of  adaptation 
entirely  into  physical  and  chemical  processes  ?  Candid  bi- 
ologists generally  admit  the  present  impossibility  of  such 
analysis.  So  the  American  authority.  Professor  Wilson, 
in  agreement  with  similar  utterances  by  a  leading  German 
embryologist,  Professor  Hertwig,  leaves  the  matter  at 
tlie  conclusion  of  his  exhaustive  treatise  on  the  Cell; 
''  The  study  of  the  cell  has  on  the  whole  seemed  to  widen 
ratlier  tlian  to  narrow  the  enormous  gap  that  separates 
even  the  lowest  forms  of  life  from  the  inorganic  world."  ^ 
lint,  iKivertheless,  modern  biology  teaches  with  general 
consent  tliat  there  is  an  unln'oken  development  from  non- 
living to  living  nature,  although  the  lines  of  connection 
between  the  two  may  lie  beneath  our  sight.     In  weaving 

i   The  Cell,  p.  434. 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  17 

the  garment  of  life  nature  has  spun  her  threads  very 
fine,  and  sometimes  they  may  be  too  subtle  for  our 
clumsy  fingers  to  unravel  them  ;  but  nevertheless  nature, 
passing  from  the  non-Uving  to  the  living,  has  nowhere 
broken  her  thread,  and  the  richly  variegated  pattern  of 
life  has  been  woven  firmly  into  the  woof  of  her  inorganic 
strength.  Biological  science  includes  and  affirms  in  its 
first  article  of  genetic  descent  a  belief  in  some  natural 
relationship  between  the  inorganic  and  the  organic 
worlds. 

It  will  be  admitted  that  life  now  does  not  proceed 
directly  from  inanimate  dust ;  that  living  creatures  are 
not,  as  even  some  scholastic  theologians  once  supposed, 
generated  spontaneously  from  dead  matter  under  existing 
conditions.  Biology  now  goes  still  further  and  asserts 
not  only  that  every  life  comes  from  some  preceding  life, 
but  also  and  more  minutely,  that  every  living  cell  pro- 
ceeds from  some  pre-existing  living  cell,  and  that  the 
germ-plasm  —  that  is,  the  germinal  matter  of  life  —  is 
continuous  and  possessed  of  an  earthly  immortality.  But 
while  the  fact  is  universally  admitted  that  non-living  mat- 
ter cannot  now  be  organized  into  a  living  form  except 
through  the  prior  agency  of  life,  on  the  other  hand  the  mo- 
mentum of  all  our  scientific  knowledge  of  the  continuities 
of  nature  leads  modern  biology  to  the  assumption  that  the 
organic  substance  at  some  time  has  been  raised  and 
quickened  from  the  deadness  of  the  inorganic  world. 
When  the  right  conditions  were  offered,  when  the  ful- 
ness of  the  time  for  its  advent  was  come,  naturally,  and 
without  violence,  as  without  observation,  in  the  midst  of 


18  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

the  inorganic  world  the  kingdom  of  life  came.^  The 
same  energy  whirh  had  slowly  fashioned  and  combined 
the  molecules  for  life,  at  the  appointed  hour  lifted  them 
up  into  life.  Such  scientific  faith  in  the  evolution  of  the 
organic  through  the  inorganic  may  imply,  as  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  argue  later,  the  existence  of  some 
unknown  or  mathematically  immeasurable  factor  in 
evolution.  But  we  refer  in  this  connection  to  the 
scientific  belief  that  nature  makes  no  break  in  becom- 
ing living  nature,  as  a  further  sign  of  some  real  and 
fundamental  unity  of  the  world.  At  this  point,  like- 
wise, before  this  striking  difference  between  life  and 
inanimate  things,  the  question  —  the  only  question  which 
science  leaves  open  —  is  not,  Are  these  two  one  ?  but. 
In  what  does  their  unity  consist?  As  between  the 
crystal  and  the  living  cell  the  problem  is  not,  Are  they 
related,  but.  What  is  the  source  and  ground  of  their  re- 
lationship? This  last  question  we  shall  discuss  further 
(ju  when  we  consider  the  higher  interpretation  of  life. 

One  characteristic  of  living  matter,  which  will  come 
before  us  later  more  fully  among  the  signs  of  the  spiritual 
significance  of  life,  should  be  noted  at  this  point,  for  it 
indicates  the  unity  of  evolution  which  science  impels 
us  to  assume,  while  it  compels  us  to  seek  for  that 
unity  dce[)er  down  than  in  any  visible  lines  of  its 
j)liysi('al  and  chemical  continuity.  We  refer  to  that  char- 
acteristic of  it  which  has  been  happily  hit  by  Professor 
Shaler's  phrase  that  living  matter  is  educable  matter ;  - 

*  S«c  Verworn,  General  Phi/siolotji/,  pp.  297  sy.,  for  theories  of  the 
orif;in  «tf  life. 

'^   The  Indiridnul,  pp.  U3  svy. 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  19 

that  is,  it  is  matter  which  has  become  capable  of  receiv- 
ing an  education.  It  has  acquired  the  power  of  contin- 
uously adapting  itself  to  its  changing  conditions,  and  of 
improving  itself.  Protoplasm  has  learned  to  make  "  an 
adaptive  response."  ^  On  the  one  hand,  so  close  is  the 
natural  kinship  between  living  and  non-living  matter 
that  it  is  not  easy  to  draw  any  hard  and  fast  chemical  or 
physical  line  of  separation  between  the  two  ;  the  differ- 
ences usually  advanced  are  found  on  more  intimate 
acquaintance  not  to  hold.  Living  matter  is  still 
matter.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  this  striking  pecu- 
liarity, this  newly  acquired  power  and  promise  dis- 
tinguishes life  from  the  beginning ;  it  is  matter  which 
has  acquired  capacity  for  self-adaptation  and  self-im- 
provement; it  has  capacity  for  education.  Non-living 
matter  cannot  be  trained  through  experience  ;  living 
matter  can  be  ;  it  is  matter  selected  and  put  into  a 
course  of  training;  it  will  profit  by  experience.  A 
crystal  will  always  crystallize  in  the  same  geometric 
forms  ;  an  organism  will  change  its  form  to  make  better 
use  of  its  environment.  Furthermore  living  organisms 
can  give  to  successive  generations  their  accumulating 
gains.  But  mineral  salts  through  the  ages  will  remain 
always  the  same  mineral  salts.  A  diamond  cannot 
divide  itself  into  two  more  valuable  and  brighter 
diamonds.  Life  can.  Living  matter  is  capable  of  con- 
tinued self-improvement.  Animal  life  gains  habit, 
and  transmits  tradition.  It  acquires  in  time  clear 
adaptive  intelligence.  In  brief,  it  is  this  capacity  for 
intelligence,  this  receptivity  and  growth  for  the  action 

1  Wilson,  The  Cell,  p.  433, 


20  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

and  free  play  of  adaptive  intelligence,  Avliicli  above  every- 
thino-  else  distinguishes  living  matter.  It  has  marked 
it  from  the  beginning.     And  it  crowns  it  at  the  end. 

How  did  organic  matter  in  the  course  of  nature  ever 
acquire  this  educable  quality?  That  is  a  fundamental 
biological  question.  It  is  more  ;  whatever  may  have 
been  the  method  of  the  acquisition  of  this  vital  capacity, 
the  fact  that  it  has  been  acquired,  compels  an  evolu- 
tionist to  seek  for  some  conception  of  the  unity  of  nature 
deep  enough  and  large  enougli  to  comprehend  both  the 
dead  and  the  living.  Otherwise  the  scientific  evidence 
of  the  unbroken  ascent  of  the  organic  from  the  inorganic 
world  would  be  a  confusion  of  thought.  If  we  are  to 
hold  to  evolution  as  the  method  of  nature,  our  idea  of 
evolution  must  be  comprehensive  enough  to  include  all 
the  facts,  and  to  sum  up  in  one  their  differences. 

Tliere  are  two  other  apparent  breaks  in  nature  which 
theologians  have  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding  as  un- 
bridged  chasms  in  evolution,  as  though  the  supposed 
existence  of  such  breaks  were  an  aid  to  religious  faith, 
and  room  must  be  left  through  gaps  in  nature  for  the 
living  God  to  come  in.  How  slow  of  faith  we  have 
l)een  to  learn  that  the  Divine  Spirit  does  not  need  to 
work  through  gaps.  We  may  need  to  discover  that  the 
order  of  the  universe  may  be  the  very  mechanism  for 
the  divine  Will.  Tlie  fine  continuities  of  nature  shall 
prove  to  be  tlie  facile  and  magnetic  lines  for  the  energy 
of  the  Spirit. 

One  of  these  supposed  breaks,  which  the  science  of 
the  century  lias  found  to  be  a  closed  circuit,  is  the 
evc>liiti(in  of  animal   intelligence.     Tliere  has  been  one 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  21 

progressive  growth  of  intelligence  in  connection  with 
the  development  of  living  matter. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  scale  of  animal  sentiency,  hardly 
a  perceptible  degree  above  the  zero-point  of  intelligent 
life,  we  see  the  apparently  aimless  motions  of  an  amoeba^ 
as  that  primitive  speck  of  protoplasm  may  be  watched 
under  the  microscope,  throwing  out  now  in  this  direc- 
tion, now  in  that,  arm-like  projections  of  its  almost 
structureless  lump  of  living  jelly,  and  another  moment 
rolling  its  whole  little  self  into  a  round  ball.  Near  the 
top  of  the  organic  ascent,  just  below  the  critical  point 
on  the  scale  where  intelligence  becomes  distinctly  hu- 
man, we  perceive  the  adaptive  motions  of  the  higher 
animals  —  the  graceful  bounds  of  a  deer  through  the 
forest  away  from  the  hunter's  aim,  or  the  balancings  of 
the  eagle  in  its  repose  of  airy  flight,  or  the  almost  human 
responsiveness  of  the  dog ;  —  and  between  these  two, 
from  the  lowest  organic  sentiency  to  the  highest  animal 
intelligence,  the  way  seems  long  and  the  distance  im- 
measurable. These  two,  we  might  suppose,  —  the  irri- 
tability of  an  amoeba  and  the  instinct  of  a  bird  in  the 
sky,  —  nature  never  could  have  bound  together  by  law 
of  continuous  growth ;  but  we  know  as  a  clear  result  of 
scientific  searching  that  nature  has  bound  them  to- 
gether. It  is  one  history  of  the  coming  of  intelligence 
in  the  animal  kingdom.  We  may  accept,  as  scientifically 
put,  Mr.  Lloyd  Morgan's  inference  from  his  studies  of 
instinct,  that  "  consciousness  arises  out  of  something 
associated  with  the  material  Qgg^  which,  though  not  yet 
consciousness,  develops  into  consciousness."  ^ 

1  Habit  and  Instinct,  p.  127. 


22  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

Granting,  liowever,  that  up  to  this  point  nature  may 
have  been  one  process,  some  thinkers,  in  the  supposed 
interest  of  their  souls,  have  taken  a  final  stand  upon 
Man's  superior  nature,  and  before  the  supreme  fact 
of  his  intelligence  they  have  said  to  an  evolutionary 
science,  ''  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  but  no  further ; 
and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed."  But  here 
likewise  the  answer  from  science  will  be :  Yes ;  Man's 
reason  is  the  supernal  Fact ;  but  in  fulfilment  of  one 
law,  out  of  the  deeps  of  nature's  vast  mystery,  there 
has  lx;en  formed  and  exalted  even  that  sublime  verity 
of  reason,  which  now  has  upon  its  summit  the  Spirit's 
transcendent  light. 

If  then  we  start,  from  the  naturalist's  point  of  view, 
we  cannot  set  aside  the  tremendous  scientific  presump- 
tion that  all  nature,  including  life,  animal  sentiency, 
and  man's  intelligence,  is  one  realm,  one  process,  one 
book  ;  and  as  such  it  is  to  be  studied  and  re-read  now  by 
true  searchers  for  its  truth.  The  interpretations  of  it 
for  whicli  the  new  natural  theology  must  seek,  will  be 
found  only  by  knocking  first  at  the  door  of  fact. 
Through  tlie  way  often  straiglit,  and  the  gate  often 
Ti allow  of  nature's  fact,  modern  thought  nmst  enter,  if 
at  all,  into  its  spiritual  kingdom. 

W(;  begin,  therefore,  by  accepting  clearly  and  posi- 
tively the  great  generalization  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury's science  ;  viz.,  tlie  genetic  unity  and  the  unbroken 
develojiinent  of  the  Avhole  realm  of  nature,  to  which  we 
also  l)cl()ng.  We  shall  seek  to  follow  out  several  of 
the  chief  lines  of  its  evolution,  and  to  interpret  their 
signifieiiin-e.      We  may  thus  learn  anew,  when  we  shall 


THE  NEW  POINT  OF   VIEW  23 

reach  the  conclusion,  that  in  sober  truth  all  nature  is 
holy  ground,  and  every  "bush  afire  with  God."  We 
may  gain  a  deeper  insight  into  all  life  and  history,  if  we 
shall  discover  that  from  tlie  beginning  natural  evolution 
has  been  more  spiritually  minded  than  we  had  thought. 
We  may  describe  further  our  point  of  view,  if  we 
compare  it  with  that  taken  by  Mr.  Drummond  in  his 
famous  book  on  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World. 
Mr.  Drummond's  critics  have  been  quick  to  perceive 
the  mistake  into  which  his  logic  fell ;  they  have  been 
slow  of  heart  to  perceive  the  truth  which  he  saw.  His 
error  lay  on  the  surface  of  his  book  in  his  assertion  that 
the  laws  of  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  realms  are 
identical.  That  is  not  true  even  of  laws  which  obtain 
within  different  parts  of  the  natural  world.  The  laws 
of  chemistry  and  of  physics,  for  example,  describe  the 
modes  of  action  of  energy  under  different  conditions, 
and  a  law  or  description  of  the  one  process  will  not 
answer  for  the  other.  But  the  truth  beneath  Mr. 
Drummond's  error  may  be  brought  out  by  a  simple 
illustration.  We  may  say  that  a  poem  and  also  a  yacht 
are  beautiful.  In  what  lies  the  resemblance  ?  Not  in 
the  laws  of  their  construction.  The  poet  in  his  verses, 
and  the  architect  in  his  drawings,  do  not  follow  the 
same  laws  of  construction.  The  lines  of  the  ship  are 
to  be  wrought  in  oak  and  iron  according  to  their  laws  ; 
and  the  thoughts  of  the  poet  are  to  be  expressed  in  airy 
words  according  to  their  harmonies.  Yet  each,  the  poet 
and  the  architect,  produces  a  thing  of  beauty,  and  all 
beauty  is  one.  It  is  the  same  delight  which  we  have 
in  it,  under  whatever  form  it  may  come  to  us.     And 


24  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

beneath  all  the  var}ing  forms  of  the  beautiful  we  nia}^ 
find  similar  })rinciples  of  the  beautiful.  With  differ- 
ences of  laws  according  to  the  diversities  in  the  materials 
used,  the  same  ideaa  of  loveliness,  the  same  principle  of 
tlie  beautiful  may  take  form,  and  find  expression.  It  was 
an  unnecessary  mistake  for  Mr.  Drummond  to  put  at 
the  foundation  of  all  analogies  an  identity  of  laws. 
Wa  need  not  do  that  to  find  one  reason  pervading  the 
whole  universe.  But  Mr.  Drummond  was  right,  he 
was  profoundly  right  in  his  insight.  The  truth  which 
lie  saw,  which  throughout  his  whole  scientific  and  reli- 
gious work  he  sought  to  lead  others  to  see,  was  the 
reality  of  the  undijrlying  spiritual  unity  of  the  world. 
In  speaking  of  tlie  origin  of  his  book  Mr.  Drummond 
once  said :  "  I  am  well  aware  that  many  see  no  such 
thread  Ijinding  Nature  and  Grace.  Others  not  only  see 
no  thread,  but  see  no  use  in  one.  I  can  only  say  that 
for  me  there  is  no  alternative  but  to  see  it.  .  .  .  Now  a 
thing  that  we  cannot  help  seeing  must  either  be  really 
there,  or  one's  vision  must  have  some  constitutional 
defect."  1  Mr.  Drummond  had  a  sane  mind,  and  there 
was  no  constitutional  defect  in  his  spiritually  scientific 
vision.  It  is  this  truth,  not  of  identical  laws,  but  of 
certain  grand  unifying  principles  Avhicli  run  up  and 
down  throughout  nature,  and  Avhich  make  of  all  na- 
ture one  glorious  revelation,— it  is  this  supreme  truth 
toward  which  we  now  turn  and  look. 

1  Life,  p.  IGO. 


CHAPTER   II 

EVOLUTION   AS   EEVELATION 

One  of  the  first  impressions  which  remains  among 
almost  the  earliest  recollections  of  our  childhood,  is 
the  sense  of  wonder.  The  wonder  of  the  world  around 
us  has  not  grown  less  with  the  years  which  have 
brought  increasing  knowledge.  We  looked  as  little 
children  up  into  the  blue  sky,  and  at  the  great  white 
clouds  sailing  across  it,  and  wondered  what  it  all 
was.  With  a  wonder  now  into  which  are  wrought 
our  human  joys  and  sorrows,  we  ask  still,  what  does  it 
all  mean  ?  Modern  science  has  swept  the  world  clear 
of  superstitions,  and  driven  needless  fears  from  the 
hearth  of  religion  ;  but  it  has  brought  the  infinite  mys- 
tery of  things  still  more  closely  home  to  our  human 
hearts.  The  real  question  for  us  at  the  height  of  the 
century's  science  is  not,  Is  the  universe  a  mystery? 
but,  Is  it  a  mystery  of  darkness,  or  of  light?  The 
mediaeval  poet  Dante,  whom  love  had  led  through  the 
spheres  to  the  gates  of  paradise,  stood  at  last  gazing 
into  an  infinite  radiance,  as  though  "  Suddenly  upon 
the  day  appeared  a  day  new  risen."  If  our  science 
likewise  may  be  led  by  some  love  of  higher,  ideal 
truth,  it  will  make  progress  through  the  spheres  of 
knowledge  until  it  shall  gain  something  like  Dante's 


26  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

vision  in  the  empyrean  of  the  flood  of  light  "replete 
witli  joy,"  '^  where  God  immediate  rules."  The  infinite 
universe  may  remain  to  finite  mind  a  mystery;  but  it 
shiiU  cease  to  seem  as  a  loneliness  of  great  darkness, 
and  become  as  a  mystery  of  the  dawn,  even  as  a  day 
new  risen  on  the  day,  while  from  its  vistas  of  light 
beyond  light  come  sweet  and  happy  voices. 

As  we  would  gain  some  word  of  life  from  nature's 
prophetic  mystery,  we  must  first  take  heed  how  we  are 
to  hear  it.  If  beneath  these  changing  phenomena  there 
is  a  Reality  which  Ave  were  made  to  know,  how  is  it 
makincr  itself  known  to  us  ?  In  other  words,  our  first 
inquiry  is  one  concerning  revelation  and  its  natural 
method.  It  is  an  inquiry  of  prime  speculative  import- 
ance, and  also  of  supreme  practical  moment  to  us, — 
What  is  the  natural  way  of  revelation  ?  In  what  man- 
ner, and  by  what  signs,  if  at  all,  has  the  ultimate 
Reality  revealed  itself  from  out  this  mystery  of  the  uni- 
verse around  us  ?  How  may  it  be  revealing  itself  to  us 
even  now,  if  we  have  eyes  to  see  it  ? 

According  to  the  method  of  study  which  has  already 
lx;en  sketched,  we  are  to  seek  for  the  answer  to  this  in- 
(piiry  first  in  the  facts  of  nature.  We  are  to  discover  the 
method  of  revelation  in  the  nature-process  itself.  Evo- 
lution, we  are  taught,  is  the  method  of  creation;  it  is 
also  the  metliod  of  revelation.  Evolution — the  whole 
age-long  course  of  it  —  has  been  a  revelation.  More 
signifKuintly  is  this  true  of  nature  after  it  has  been 
quickened  into  life:  the  evolution  of  living  nature  has 
been  and    is  a  revelation    oi    the    mystery   which    was 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  27 

hidden  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  It  is  awe- 
inspiring  to  follow  this  revelation  of  the  glory  of  the 
dispensation  of  life  from  its  beginning  until  now.  One 
can  read  with  reverent  wonder  the  earliest  prophetic 
records  of  this  natural  revelation,  as  the  course  of  it  may 
be  followed  in  the  development  of  cell-life.  Indeed 
when  a  biologist  puts  upon  a  slide  for  his  microscope 
thin  sections  which  show  the  successive  stages  of  the 
development  of  a  cell,  he  has  put  upon  that  bit  of  glass 
the  primal  wonder  of  the  whole  living  world.  The 
germs  and  determinants,  the  predestination  and  the 
order,  the  potentialities  and  the  promise  of  a  whole 
living  universe  lie  there  for  him  —  last  development 
himself  of  them  all  —  to  peer  into,  and  to  think  over, 
and  to  find  out  concerning  them  what  he  may.  We 
envy  not  the  mind  of  that  investigator  who,  however 
familiar  he  may  be  with  these  processes  of  life,  can  look 
at  them  through  his  microscope  without  ever  reverent 
thought. 

We  begin  with  a  description  of  this  earliest  revelation 
of  life  which  is  to  be  observed  in  the  division  and 
multiplication  of  the  cell.  We  shall  begin  thus  with 
the  primal  and  simplest  facts  of  natural  revelation.  To 
lay  hold  of  the  highest  religious  truths,  we  do  well 
always  to  grasp  them  by  their  nearest  ends.^ 

As  we  shall  have  repeated  occasion  to  refer  to  the 
cell  and  its  contents,  it  may  be  well  at  the  outset  to 
give  a  general  account  of  it,  and  of  what  has  been  found 
within  it.  Eggs  are  now  receiving  a  vast  amount  of 
scientific  attention.     Good  eggs  and  bad  eggs,  healthy 

1  See  the  author's  Personal  Creeds. 


28  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

eggs  and  sick  eggs,  eggs  growing  norma%,  and  eggs  even 
artificially  fertilized,  some  left  to  themselves  to  develop, 
and  others  twisted  and  shaken  with  laborious  ingenuity, 
are  become  suljjects  now  of  close  scientific  scrutiny. 
Hundreds  of  keen  eyes  in  many  laboratories  are  peering 
into  the  secrets  which  still  lie  waiting  to  be  found  out 
in  the  living  cell.  Its  fruitful  study  is  indeed  one  of 
the  last  products  of  tlie  past  century's  science.  As  long 
ago  as  the  year  1600  the  compound  microscope  was 
invented ;  but  the  use  made  of  it  by  its  earlier  possessors 
has  been  fitly  characterized  as  a  play  of  science  rather 
than  as  productive  work.  Not  until  the  earlier  years  of 
tlie  last  century  was  some  constructive  idea  gained  of 
tlie  unity  and  order  of  this  new,  curious  microscopic 
world.  Not  until  the  last  twenty-five  years  has  cytol- 
ogy, the  science  of  the  cell,  found  a  leading  place 
among  the  sciences. 

The  name  cell  is  somewhat  misleading.  It  naturally 
suggests  a  more  or  less  spherical  little  body  surrounded 
by  a  wall  of  some  kind.  But  the  cell,  as  biology  knows 
it,  does  not  always  or  necessarily  have  any  outer  cover- 
ing or  enveloping  membrane ;  it  may  consist  of  a  mere 
naked  mass  of  protoplasm.  A  white  blood  corpuscle 
within  your  veins  is  a  cell ;  an  amoeba,  lowest  of 
organisms,  is  a  cell ;  but  although  this  dot  of  living 
matter  may  Ix;  without  covering  or  wall,  it  will  man- 
age tf)  keep  itself  together,  very  much  as  a  drop  of  oil 
may  do  in  water.  Living  cells  vary  also  very  much  in 
size;  they  are  almost  infinitesimal;  but  they  may  become 
as  lar^c,  lor  instance,  as  a  hen's  Qgg,  which  is  a  simple 
(•'•11  increased  l)y  a,  comparatively  enormous  amount  of 
yollv  spherules  as  well  as  by  layers  of  albumen. 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  29 

When  once  the  great  generalization  iiad  been  dem- 
onstrated that  all  plants  and  animals  are  composed  of 
cells,  and  consequently  that  we  must  look  ultimately  to 
the  cells  of  which  they  are  formed  to  understand  their 
nature  and  life-history;  it  was  not  long  before  more 
was  discovered  concerning  these  elementary  corpuscles, 
which  thus  had  acquired  so  great  physiological  im- 
portance. At  first  they  were  mistaken  for  very  simple 
affairs,  and  their  contents  were  quite  neglected.  But 
improved  microscopes  and  better  methods  of  research 
soon  brought  to  light  signs  of  intricate  structure  within 
these  fine  dots  of  living  matter,  and  their  behavior 
under  close  scientific  scrutiny  was  found  to  be  by  no 
means  so  simple  and  artless  as  had  been  supposed. 
The  cell-substance  —  the  living  matter  —  was  then 
demonstrated  to  be  similar  in  all  cells,  and  was  named 
protoplasm.     A  cell  is  a  small  lump  of  protoplasm. 

But  what  is  that?  The  biologists  are  agreed  that 
even  this  primitive  protoplasm  shows  signs  of  structure, 
and  already  possesses  some  organization;  but  they  are 
still  far  from  agreement  as  to  the  nature  of  its  ultimate 
structure.  Some  regard  it  as  foam-like  in  its  appear- 
ance, and  others  as  matter  finely  reticulated,  like  the 
meshes  of  a  net.  Or  it  is  supposed  to  be  put  together 
like  a  bundle  of  fibres.  Another  view  is  that  it  is 
composed  of  innumerable  minute  granules.  The  latest 
researches  seem  to  indicate  that  it  is  composed  of  sim- 
pler and  finer  units  which  are  ultra-microscopical,  and 
which  may  bear  very  much  the  same  relation  to  living 
matter  that  the  molecules  do  to  other  matter.  These 
ultimate    units    of    protoplasm    may    assume    varying 


30  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

arrangements  or  successive  structural  forms.  Our 
microscopes  certainly  leave  us  still  very  far  from  the 
bottom  of  this  secret.  But  observers  are  generally 
agreed  that  this  apparently  simple  microscopic  cell  con- 
tains within  itself  different  elements  and  distinctive 
parts,  which  have  a  definite  work  to  perform  in  its  life- 
history.  One  of  the  larger  of  these  parts,  which  is 
easily  distinguishable,  is  the  nucleus.  It  is  a  well 
defined  dot  of  matter  within  the  cell,  which  will  take 
a  different  chemical  stain  from  the  surrounding  cell- 
contents  or  cytoplasm.  This  nuclear  dot  within  a 
dot  of  living  matter  proves  to  be  a  new  wonder;  it 
seenLS  to  be  tlie  most  wonderful  thing  in  the  world. 
For  the  mystery  of  the  whole  subsequent  development 
and  organization  of  a  plant  or  animal,  all  the  differ- 
ences between  the  several  species  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals, and,  besides  these,  the  factors  of  heredity,  and 
the  peculiarities  of  individuals,  seem  to  lie  hidden  and 
packed  among  the  infinitesimal  potencies  of  this  minute 
nucleus  of  an  egg-cell.  There  it  is  under  the  micro- 
scope,—  the  whole  mystery  of  being  concentrated  at  a 
single  point.  The  problem  of  the  old  schoolmen,  how 
many  angels  can  dance  on  the  point  of  a  needle?  seems 
to  ])e  surpassed  by  the  cool  verity  of  this  scientific 
calculation,  —  how  can  so  many  specific  differences  pro- 
ceed from  microscopic  matter  finer  than  a  needle's  point? 
Hut  tliey  do. 

Some  of  I  lie  principal  parts  of  the  nucleus  Avill  be 
mentioned  as  we  now  describe  the  revelation  of  the 
development  of  the  organism  from  the  egg-cell.  This 
process  has   been  nuich  studii-d   in  the  q^^  of  a  small 


Figure  1. 

Diagram  of  a  cell.  The  cell-body  is  surrounded  by  a  cell-jnembrane 
(cm),  and  appears  to  be  permeated  by  a  mesh-work  of  delicate 
threads  {ci/toplasmic  reticulum,  c.r).  These  threads  are  made  up  of 
minute  granules,  or  microsomes,  and  together  with  the  matrix  enclosed 
in  tlie  mesh-work  consist  of  living  protoplasm.  Other  portions  of  the 
living  protoplasm  are  differentiated  into  the  various  cell-organs,  such 
as  tire  nucleus,  centrosomes  and  asters,  and  chromatophores  (Ch,  found  in 
the  cells  of  green  plants). 

The  nucleus  is  surrounded  by  a  nuclear  membrane  {N.M),  and  consists 
mainly  of  an  irregular  network  of  chromatin  (c)  suspended  in  a  more 
flixid  matrix  by  means  of  delicate  threads  of  linin  (/).  The  nucleus 
also  commonly  contains  one  or  more  rounded  nucleoli  (N),  the  function 
of  which  is  unknown.  A  small  attraction-sphere  (-4.*S'),  containing  a 
minute  centrosome,  is  found  in  many  cells,  and  its  presence  may  be 
looked  upon  as  well-nigh  universal  among  animals. 

In  the  reticulum  of  tlie  cytoplasm  are  suspended  various  non-living 
bodies,  such  as  food  partick-s  {/)  stored  up  for  the  future  use  of  the 
cell,  or  secretions,  excretions,  etc.  (*S),  and  sometimes  vacuoles  of 
cell-sap  {V). 


32  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

worm,  the  Ascaris.  Our  hymn-makers  would  hardly 
have  taught  us  to  sing,  "What  worthless  worms  are 
we,"  had  they  been  familiar  with  the  great  service 
wliich,  as  Mr.  Darwin  has  shown,  the  worms  render  in 
Avorki ng  up  the  soil  for  vegetation ;  and  when  Ave  know 
also  the  beautiful  marvel  of  structure  and  groAvth 
A\liicli  l)iology  has  discovered  even  in  the  Qgg  of  the 
humblest  Avorm,  it  might  be  more  scientifically  true,  as 
Avell  as  humble,  for  us  to  sing,  "What  Avonderful  Avorms 
are  Ave ! "  Certainly  our  rarest  human  handiAVork  is 
clumsiness  in  comparison  Avith  the  intricate  machinery 
and  the  exquisite  fineness  of  the  Aveaving  of  the  threads 
of  life  in  the  division  and  growth  of  the  living  cell 
even  of  the  AA'orm. 

In  order  that  this  working  of  nature  in  the  dcA^elop- 
ment  of  a  cell  may  be  rendered  more  Adsible,  the  micro- 
SL'Opists  first  cut  them  into  series  of  thin  sections  Avhich 
are  then  stained  with  chemicals  by  means  of  AAdiich 
differences  in  their  structure  are  rendered  apparent. 
\\'hen  Ave  examine  under  a  high  power  of  the  micro- 
scope a  series  of  sections  of  a  fertilized  Qgg^  the  veil 
begins  to  be  lifted  from  the  holy  place  of  life's  repro- 
duction. But  the  PoAver  which  dAvells  within  this 
temple  is  unseen.  First  the  nucleus  of  the  ovum,  the 
egg-cell,  is  matured  and  prepared  for  the  beginning  of 
a  liff-liistory  b}-  a  succession  of  interesting  changes 
Avlii(;li  for  the  moment  Ave  Avill  not  seek  to  describe; 
then  a  germ  from  Avithout,  Avhicli  also  has  been  prepared 
for  its  woi-k,  enters  it;  and  behold!  a  ncAV  process  of 
life  lias  ])C'cii  inicros(;()])ically  begun,  Avhicli  shall  not 
fail  or  faker,  which  .shall  go  from  strength  to  strength 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  33 

and  grace  to  grace  until  in  the  adult  form  its  primal 
mystery  of  being  shall  have  been  revealed.  One  of 
the  first  signs  to  be  marked  in  the  development  of  the 
cell,  is  the  appearance  of  two  points  called  centrosomes, 
from  which  emanate  star-like  rays.  These  asters,  as 
they  are  designated,  at  first  lie  near  each  other,  but 
they  will  soon  draw  apart  until  they  are  seen  lying  at 
opposite  poles  of  the  cell.  Meanwhile  there  is  woven 
between  them,  no  one  can  tell  how,  a  number  of  fine 
threads,  which  expand  in  the  middle  of  the  cell,  and 
which  are  gathered  together  at  each  pole,  —  the  whole 
structure  thus  formed  resembling  a  spindle.  Near  the 
middle  part  of  this  spindle  are  to  be  seen  a  number 
of  lines  or  loops  of  matter,  which  may  be  clearly  dis- 
tinguished because,  on  account  of  some  peculiar  chemi- 
cal constitution,  they  take  a  deeper  stain  than  the  rest 
of  the  egg-substance.  And  still  the  revelation  of  the 
mystery  of  life  grows  before  our  eyes ;  for  these  loops, 
which  are  called  chromosomes,  will  next  split  length- 
wise into  equal  halves,  —  no  one  really  knows  how  :  — 
and  then  these  halves  are  gradually  drawn  apart,  and  — 
by  what  attraction  we  can  only  imperfectly  understand 
—  one  half  of  them  gather  around  one  of  the  aster 
poles  of  the  Qg^^  while  the  other  half  are  drawn  to 
the  opposite  polar  star.  By  this  means  nature  secures 
in  the  earliest  embryonic  organization  an  equal  division 
of  the  matter  within  the  cell  which  bears  the  hereditary 
properties.  These  equally  divided  loops  are  now  known 
to  be  composed  in  equal  proportions  of  maternal  and 
paternal  elements  of  the  organism.  Then,  when  these 
carefully  halved   chromosomes  have  been  thus  impar- 

3 


Figure  2. 

Diagrams  illustrating  the  process  of  cell-division,  or  mitosis. 

A.  Cell  in  the  so-called  "  resting "  stage  ;  that  is,  not  undergoing 
division.  Above  the  nucleus  is  a  centrosome.  The  nucleus  shows 
the  irregular  network  of  chromatin  and  a  rounded  nucleolus. 

B.  Cell  preparing  for  division:  the  centrosome  has  divided  into 
two  daughter  centrosomes,  about  which  the  amphiaster  is  beginning 
to  form.  The  chromatin-network  has  resolved  itself  into  a  definite 
number  of  chromosomes.   The  nucleolus  is  beginning  to  degenerate. 

C.  The  asters  have  increased  in  size  and  the  chromosomes  are 
being  drawn  towards  them.  The  nuclear  membrane  has  partially 
disappeared. 

D.  The  asters  have  become  much  larger,  a  spindle  is  formed  be- 
tween them,  and  the  chromosomes  are  being  drawn  to  the  equator  of 
the  spindle. 

E.  The  amphiaster  has  reached  its  maximum  in  size  and  perfection. 
The  chromosomes  have  become  arranged  symmetrically  exactly  in  the 
equator  of  the  spindle.  In  this  and  the  following  figures  but  half  of 
the  supposed  number  (eight)  of  chromosomes  are  shown. 

F.  Each  chromosome  is  splitting  longitudinally  into  identically 
equivalent  portions,  the  daughter  chromosomes,  which  in  G  are  being 
drawn  towards  their  respective  asters. 

H.  The  daughter-chromosomes  are  approaching  the  asters,  the  cen- 
trosomes of  which  have  already  divided  in  anticipation  of  the  next  cell 
division.  On  the  equator  of  the  cell  appears  a  slight  constriction  of  the 
cell-membrane,  which  gradually  deepens  as  the  cell-division  proceeds. 

/.  The  daughter-chromosomes  having  reached  their  respective  asters, 
swell  out  into  vesicles  which  fuse  together  to  form  the  daughter-nuclei. 
The  asters  are  degenerating. 

K.  Division  into  two  cells  completed.  The  asters  have  practically 
disappeared,  and  the  centrosomes  will  be  lost  to  vieAv  a  little  later. 
The  constriction  seen  in  Fig.  //  has  deepened  until  the  cell-body  has 
been  cut  in  two  at  its  equator.  The  daughter-nuclei  have  increased  in 
size  by  the  absorption  of  food  from  the  cytoplasm,  and  a  nucleolus  has 
appeared  in  each.  In  /  and  K  the  daughter-nucleus  on  the  right  is 
shown  at  a  slightly  more  advanced  stage  than  the  one  on  the"  left. 
There  are  now  two  cells  in  the  same  condition  as  the  sinde  cell  A  in 
the  resting  stage.  Each  of  those  two  may  divide  in  a  similar  manner, 
and  so  the  process  of  cell-multiplication  be  continued. 


36  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

tially  gathered  around  the  opposite  poles  of  the  nucleus, 
nature  proceeds  to  divide  tlie  cell  in  the  middle  bet\Yeen 
them,  so  tliat  the  result  of  the  whole  process  is  that  two 
separate  cells  are  formed,  each  containing  its  own  half 
of  the  nuclear  matter,  which  in  the  case  of   the  ees'- 

oo 

cell  is  likewise  composed  of  equal  shares  of  the  heredi- 
tary matter  from  both  sexes.  And  so  in  this  simple, 
mathematically  exact  yet  mysterious  way,  nature  goes 
on  dividing  and  multiplying  cells  unto  the  perfection 
of  the  organic  form.  This  process  of  cell-division  is 
the  method  of  all  subsequent  growth. 

We  will  pass  over  the  details  of  the  further  process 
of  embryological  development, — they  are  exactly  de- 
scribed in  the  text-books  of  physiology ;  but  in  general 
tliis  process  of  cell-division  and  cell-multiplication  goes 
on  in  embry-onic  development  after  this  manner:  first 
a  spherical  layer  of  cells  will  be  formed,  surrounding 
a  cavity  {hlastula);  then  these  cells  will  be  arranged 
in  two  layers,  hollowed  in,  like  a  rubber  ball  pressed 
in  from  one  side,  forming  a  double-layered  cup;  then 
there  follow  still  further  groupings  and  differentiations 
of  cells  and  layers  of  cells,  until  the  adult  form  is 
fashioned.  In  this  process,  two  quite  distinct  kinds  of 
cells  early  appear;  one  of  them  are  the  germ  cells, 
wliich  shall  serve  the  purpose  of  transmitting  life  with 
its  hereditary  properties ;  the  other  are  the  somatic,  or 
lx)dy-cells,  from  which  the  tissues  and  frame  and  organs 
of  the  individual  are  built  up. 

Regarding  tliis  process  of  fertilization  and  develop- 
ment as  one  wIkjIc,  we  find  at  the  beginning  a  simplest 
cell,  like  the  liLLle  egg  of  tlic  worm  ^scam;  the  method 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  37 

of  growth  is  seen  to  be  through  successive  divisions  and 
multiplications  of  the  cells  ;  and  at  the  end  of  it  all, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  ultra-microscopic  matter 
of  the  egg-cell  at  the  beginning,  and  as  the  full  final 
revelation  of  its  life,  we  find  the  specific  adult  creature, 
the  worm,  the  fish,  or  bird,  or  mammal,  yes,  likewise,  — 
for  our  life  too  belongs  to  nature  and  is  cherished  at  her 
heart,  —  the  human  child.  Such  in  brief  is  the  evolu- 
tion of  life  from  the  cell.  Shall  we  hesitate  to  call  such 
evolution  revelation  ?  It  is  revelation  of  something  un- 
seen. From  the  invisible  comes  forth  the  visible.  The 
unknown  makes  itself  known.  We  see  the  thing  which 
is  coming  forth  from  the  things  which  do  not  appear. 
The  original  mystery  of  the  dispensation  of  matter  and 
force  takes  living  form  and  shape,  and  unfolds  itself 
before  our  eyes.  Our  science  may  follow  it  part  way, 
and  describe  it ;  it  knows  not  the  cause  of  it.  Watch- 
ing it,  studying  it,  thinking  over  it,  we  ask.  What  is  it 
which  is  here  coming  to  revelation?  And  how  is  it 
disclosed  ?  What  is  the  method  of  this  natural  revela- 
tion through  life  ? 

If  we  look  up  from  this  single  instance  which  I  have 
been  describing;  if  we  survey  the  whole  evolution,  and 
consider  it  in  the  large,  we  are  confronted  with  this 
same  question,  What  is  nature's  method  of  revelation? 
Are  there  any  principles  of  revelation  which  we  may 
discover  in  the  course  of  evolution?  Are  such  prin- 
ciples of  revelation  to  be  found  and  followed  through- 
out nature  ?  Do  they  hold  good  in  every  realm  of  the 
creation?  We  have  next,  therefore,  to  observe  certain 
characteristics  of  nature  as  a  revelation.  We  shall 
search  for  the  principles  in  the  facts. 


38  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

We  find  lirst  that  the  principle  of  revelation  in  nature 
is  one  of  self -revelation,  —  of  revelation  of  itself  from 
within.  Evolution  throughout  is  nature's  self- revela- 
tion. The  Life  comes  to  the  light  in  the  development 
of  the  egg-cell.  This  disclosure  may  be  of  some  power 
beneath  or  above  nature ;  but  the  revelation  of  it,  what- 
ever its  Name  may  be,  comes  from  within  nature,  and 
through  its  life.  It  is  light  shining  from  within,  and 
growing  as  the  development  proceeds.  The  mystery  of 
tlie  ages  whicli  envelops  the  egg-cell,  is  not  suddenly 
lifted  as  a  veil  might  be  by  some  hand  from  without. 
No  search-light  from  afar  is  flashed  down  into  life's 
primal  secret  as  it  lies  hidden  darkly  in  nature's  heart. 
We  must  wait,  and  watch  for  it  to  make  known  its  own 
meaning.  Neither  is  revelation,  as  it  comes  to  us  down 
the  great  world-process  of  evolution,  like  a  sudden  flash 
of  reflected  light,  in  which  nature's  original  meaning 
and  intent  may  be  discerned;  nature  rather  becomes 
self-luminous.  Gradually,  as  the  ages  proceed,  the 
mystery  of  the  dispensation  of  life  becomes  manifest. 

Moreover,  this  character  of  self-revelation  pertains  to 
evolution  everywhere.  It  is  a  method  running  through 
all  the  orders  of  the  world.  The  text  of  nature's  sacred 
scripture  grows  from  age  to  age ;  but  no  commentary  is 
added,  no  note  of  explanation  is  ever  appended.  We 
must  find  out  nature's  meaning  from  her  own  text,  and 
from  tlie  text  only.  The  book  of  life  is  issued  in  suc- 
cessive chapters,  and  there  is  no  break  of  meaning  be- 
tween tliem ;  but  on  every  page  it  is  to  be  read  in  its 
own  language  witliout  lielp  of  translation;  it  is  to  be 
underatood  by  comparison  of  its  successive  chapters,  and 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  39 

interpreted  in  the  completion  of  its  one  volume.  If  it 
has  rational  unity,  that  will  be  found  in  its  whole  order. 
If  it  has  the  characteristic  of  a  process  of  thought,  that 
will  be  discovered  in  the  logic  of  its  whole  movement. 
If  it  has  direction  from  the  beginning  and  throughout 
its  course  toward  some  final  end,  that  too  will  be  dis- 
closed in  the  succession  of  its  forms.  If  in  short, 
nature  as  one  whole  is  characterized  by  intelligence  and 
is  informed  with  thought,  its  glory  of  reason  will  be  re- 
vealed as  the  disclosure  of  its  secret  from  of  old,  and  as 
its  own  prophecy  of  its  destiny.  There  is  no  other  way 
of  natural  revelation  than  this  way  of  self -revelation. 

Evolution  is  a  progressive  revelation. 

The  method  of  revelation  in  evolution  is  marked  by 
these  two  related  characters,  —  it  is,  as  has  just  been 
noted,  an  opening  forth  from  within  of  the  powers  and 
promise  of  the  creation ;  and  it  is  further  a  progressive 
disclosure  of  them.  Evolution,  as  one  continuous  course 
of  nature,  contains  always  both  prophecies  and  fulfil- 
ments. Each  successive  chapter  brings  out  further  the 
meaning  of  preceding  chapters,  and  points  also  to  some- 
thing to  be  made  known  in  coming  chapters.  Evolu- 
tion is  a  novel  with  a  plot.  It  is  a  story  which  grows 
more  interesting  as  we  read  on.  It  is  a  romance  of  life 
with  love  hinted  at  the  beginning,  and  growing  clearer 
through  its  varying  fortunes  and  many  perplexities,  and 
becoming  sure  of  itself  as  the  story  goes  on. 

This  progressive  character  of  natural  revelation 
appears  in  a  striking  manner  when  we  consider  one  of 
the  noted  discoveries    of   modern  embryology.     It  has 


40  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

been  observed  that  the  growth  of  the  individual  in  the 
egg  repeats,  or  in  some  measure  recaj)itulates,  the  suc- 
cessive stages  of  the  development  of  the  race.  The  in- 
dividual sums  up  the  history  of  his  ancestors.  This 
law  of  recapitulation  cannot  indeed  be  too  closely  fol- 
lowed in  embryological  growth,  and  it  has  sometimes 
been  exaggerated  and  travestied  in  popular  conceptions 
of  it ;  as,  for  instance,  when  it  is  represented  that  "  the 
human  embryo  is  in  one  stage  like  a  little  fish,  later  like 
a  little  reptile,  and  so  on."  jNIr.  Milnes  Marshall  has 
expressed  the  truth  in  "  a  wide  and  metaphorical  sense," 
when  he  said  that  "Every  animal  in  its  own  develop- 
ment repeats  its  history,  climbs  up  its  own  genealogical 
tree."  ^  It  is  true  that  in  a  general,  though  usually  a 
mucli  abbreviated  way,  the  later  animals  repeat  in  their 
embryonic  growth  stages  which  resemble  earlier  forms 
of  life.  Gill-slits,  for  instance,  like  those  of  a  fish  are  to 
be  seen  in  a  chick  a  few  hours  old  within  the  egfor.  The 
whole  process  of  previous  life  is  not  repeated,  and  earlier 
forms  are  often  overlaid  by  more  recent  adaptations  ; 
but,  speaking  broadly,  the  life-history  of  the  previous 
ages  is  recapitulated  in  the  embryonic  growth  of  the 
later  forms,  and  in  the  growth  of  the  human  child. 

Now  this  habit  of  nature  of  summing  up,  as  it  were, 
lower  chapters  in  the  history  of  life  at  the  beginning  of 
new  ones,  is  found  invaluable  to  naturalists  as  an  aid  to 
their  understanding  of  the  course  of  evolution,  and  as  a 
help  to  the  right  classification  of  different  animal  forms. 
Following  nature's  own  summary,  they  are  enabled  to 
aiTange  better  her  forms  in  their  true  order,  and  they 

^  Thoinsou,  Science  of  Life,  p.  135. 


EVOLUTION  AS   REVELATION  41 

find  that  these  constitute  a  progressive  series.  For  this 
is  our  point  in  referring  to  this  habit  of  recapitulation 
in  nature ;  —  we  have  been  helped  to  see  by  it  that  the 
evolution  of  life  has  been  throughout  a  progressive 
revelation.  As  the  process  draws  towards  its  com- 
pletion, in  the  embryonic  growth  of  the  higher  animals 
we  can  read  the  previous  history  backwards,  and  under- 
stand more  truly  its  progress.  Life  in  its  last  forms 
becomes  a  fulfilled  prophecy,  by  means  of  which  we 
may  interpret  words  spoken  of  old  by  nature  in  the  first 
inspirations  of  her  up-reaching  life.  When  the  whole 
history  is  summed  up,  and  put  before  us  in  its  most 
complete  form,  we  can  perceive  that  it  has  been  through- 
out an  intelligible  record,  and  that  all  its  successive 
chapters    and   parts   have   had   their   place   and  time. 

Evolution  is  increasing  revelation  to  a  growing 
organ    of   perception. 

On  the  one  side  there  is  an  increasing  manifestation 
of  nature,  and  on  the  other  side  there  is  growing 
capacity  to  receive  the  revelation.  The  fact  that  it  is 
so,  will  appear  when  we  consider  how  the  natural  world 
has  gradually  been  disclosed  to  the  eye  which  was 
forming  to  see  it.  Indeed  One  of  the  most  interesting, 
but  as  yet  unwritten  chapters  of  popular  science  might 
be  entitled,  A  Chapter  on  Eyes,  and  How  they  came 
to  see.  Only  in  scattered  notices  here  and  there  in  our 
scientific  literature  has  this  natural  romance  of  the 
evolution  of  the  eye  been  written,  and  it  has  not  yet 
been  made  popular  science.  It  is  indeed  a  wonderful 
history  —  this  strange  story  of  growth  from  its  earliest 


42  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

rudiments  of  the  clear-seeing  eye.  The  zoologists  from 
their  comparative  observations  of  all  kinds  of  eyes 
have  gathered  much  material  for  this  scientific  serial. 
Through  its  chief  stages,  and  in  many  interesting 
particulars,  the  development  of  the  most  highly  or- 
ganized eye  can  now  be  followed ;  the  genealogy,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  eye  may  be  traced.  We  will  not  attempt 
to  describe  it  here  with  technical  definition;  but  we  will 
follow  it  sufficiently  to  show  the  truth  of  this  character- 
istic of  natural  revelation  now  before  us ;  viz.,  the 
revelation  of  nature  increases  as  the  capacity  of  per- 
ception for  it  grows. 

All  living  matter  is  now  known  to  have  some 
sensitiveness  to  light.  Some  response  to  light  has 
been  shown  to  characterize  even  the  i)rimitive  proto- 
plasm of  an  amoeba.  And  what  is  still  more  curious, 
that  little  dot  of  a  being,  without  any  organization  to 
speak  of,  lias  been  found  to  notice  different  kinds  of 
light,  for  it  will  respond  differently  to  different  colors.^ 
It  will  answer  with  the  quickest  responsive  movement 
tlie  stimulus  of  the  red  ray ;  it  will  answer  somewhat 
less  responsively  the  green  and  yellow  rays.  Its  motions 
will  Ije  stopped  or  reversed  by  violet  rays.  It  may  be 
perhaps  a  question  whether  these  differences  in  its 
response  are  not  occasioned  by  the  different  degrees  of 
intensity  of  tlic  light  rather  than  by  the  changing 
(•oh)rs ;  but  the  experiments  indicate  that  living  matter 
in  its  primitive  form  has  some  sensitiveness  even  to 
color.  As  an  amoeha^  however,  has  no  special  organ  for 
any  function  of   its   little   life,  so  it  has  no  particular 

1  See  Am.  Juiir.  of  Phijs.  Awj.  1899,    pp.  9-18. 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  43 

point  of  response  to  the  light.  It  does  not  need  it. 
But  from  this  general  primal  sensitiveness  of  living 
matter  to  light,  and  under  the  stimulus  of  the  light,  the 
eye  shall  in  time  take  form,  and  perfect  vision  come. 
In  a  minute  microscopic  organism  QEuglena)  —  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made  as  half  plant 
and  half  animal  —  there  may  be  noticed  at  one  end  a 
small  red  speck,  which  is  called  an  eye-spot.  The  name 
may  seem  almost  fanciful,  yet  that  spot  is  known  to  be 
sensitive  to  light.  Some  way  farther  along  the  scale  of 
animal  ascent,  in  many  of  the  lowest  moUusks  veritable 
eye-spots  are  found.  On  their  exposed  epithelial  sur- 
face certain  jDig^TLent  spots  appear ;  the  epithelial  cells 
at  these  points  become  slightly  elongated  into  a  rod-like 
form,  and  we  witness  nature's  first  attempt  to  make  a 
seeing  eye.  But  in  this  simplest  form  there  is  as  yet 
no  vision  —  only  an  eye-spot,  possessing  special  sensi- 
tiveness to  light.  A  little  more  is  gained  for  the  coming 
faculty  of  vision  when  these  pigmented  spots  of  the 
outer  membrane  or  skin  become  depressed,  and  form 
saucer-like  pits  in  which  the  sunbeams  are  gathered  up. 
The  primitive  eye  is  only  a  saucer  —  a  sensitive  saucer 
—  for  gathering  sunbeams.  Then  this  depression  is 
deepened,  and  becomes  like  a  cup,  as  in  the  eye  of  a 
limpet;  and  the  nervous  tissue  beneath  it  begins  to 
separate  into  distinguishable  layers.  Still  thus  far  we 
have  only  a  spot  better  fitted  to  perceive  light,  but  not 
capable  of  distinguishing  objects.  The  next  step  con- 
sists in  closing  up  the  cup  which  has  been  made,  leaving 
just  a  pin-hole  open  for  a  beam  of  light  to  pass  in ;  and 
then,  having  gone  so  far,  nature  seems  easily  to  go  a 


44  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

little  farther,  and  covers  the  small  opening  with  a 
transparent  membrane.  It  is  not  quite  closed  in  the 
Nautilus,  it  is  closed  and  covered  in  the  snail.  Thus 
the  common  snail  was  a  distinct  acquisition  to  natural 
society  with  its  better  eye.  This  cup-like  eye,  so  closed, 
is  then  filled  with  a  transparent  refractive  substance, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  the  vitreous 
humor.  Now  at  length  the  image  of  an  object  becomes 
possible  on  the  retina,  which  nature  at  the  same  time 
has  been  finishing  at  the  bottom  of  the  cup.  Nature 
next  manages  to  let  a  bit  of  cuticle  grow  into  this  cup- 
like eye,  and  to  take  form  as  a  crystalline  lens  for 
better  seeing.  In  the  common  squid  we  find  the  eye 
at  tills  further  stage  of  its  formation;  and  indeed  the 
growth  of  the  eye  in  the  embryo  of  the  squid  passes 
through,  or  recapitulates,  the  successive  stages  which 
have  just  been  described.  Nature  has  thus  reached  the 
best  possible  invertebrate  eye.  In  its  earlier  forms  sight 
may  be  a  "  pin-hole  vision " ;  but  it  takes  in  some- 
thing of  the  great  outlying  world,  —  enough  at  least  for 
the  uses  of  the  life  for  which  a  nautilus  may  need  to  see. 
We  need  not  follow  with  a  too  complicated  technical 
descri[)tion  the  further  stages  and  diversifications  in  the 
later  interesting  development  of  the  vertebrate  eye.  Its 
Instory  branched  off,  and  followed  an  improved  method 
of  its  own.  It  has  gradually  grown  to  be  what  it  is  in 
our  organ  of  sight.  Its  exceeding  excellence  is  a  slowly 
acquired  perfection  of  vision.  When  at  last  it  is  gained, 
behold  the  full  revelation  which  is  opened  to  it !  The 
oartli  iind  tlie  sky  at  last  are  mirrored  in  the  finished 
eye. 


EVOLUTION  AS   REVELATION  45 

Reflect  that  throughout  this  evolution  of  the  eye 
nature  has  been  an  increasing  revelation  to  its  growing 
perceptive  power.  There  has  been  revelation  of  nature 
as  fast  as  there  was  formed  an  eye  to  see  nature.  Only 
as  much  at  any  time  can  be  disclosed  of  the  great  out- 
lying world,  as  there  exists  at  that  stage  of  evolution  an 
eye  to  perceive.  To  the  rudimentary  eye-cup  only  a 
dim  sensation  of  some  outlying  reality  can  be  given. 
Through  the  primitive  eye-slit  a  vague  perception  of 
light  beyond  may  be  brought  in  ;  but  the  objects  which 
lie  in  the  world  without  do  not  yet  appear.  The  worm, 
or  the  primitive  mollusk  must  be  a  veritable  agnostic, 
perceiving  light,  but  seeing  nothing  in  it.  In  the  eye 
better  fitted  with  a  simple  lens  images  of  objects, 
although  still  vague  and  shadowy,  may  be  depicted. 
There  are  some  peculiarities  of  insect  eyes  which  have 
led  naturalists  to  suppose  that  possibly  they  may  have 
some  perceptions  adapted  to  their  needs,  which  we  do 
not  need,  and  do  not  have  with  our  larger,  better  eyes. 
Through  the  eyes  of  the  most  developed  animals,  and  to 
such  degrees  of  sentience  as  they  may  possess,  nature 
reveals  not  only  distinct  images  of  things,  but  also  objects 
to  be  desired  or  avoided,  the  means  of  preserving  life, 
ways  of  escape  from  danger,  and  the  places  best  fitted 
for  their  existence.  Nature  reveals  to  them  food,  and 
whatever  is  needed  for  animal  life  in  harmony  with 
her  provisions.  Thus  ever  with  increasing  sentiency 
the  revelation  grows.  At  last  through  the  eye  of  man, 
to  the  intelligence  behind  it,  not  only  food  and  raiment, 
and  all  things  needful  for  the  maintenance  of  life  are  dis- 
closed ;  but  the  veil  is  lifted  from  a  realm  of  order  and 


46  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

of  beauty  which  had  long  been  waiting  to  be  revealed. 
Nature  has  formed  at  last  the  finished  eye  of  intelligence 
to  behold  her  perfect  loveliness.  In  a  fair  landscape,  or 
from  a  mountain-top,  man  sees  a  world  which  seems  not 
to  be  opened  to  the  eye  of  his  dog  or  to  the  horse  that 
will  turn  from  the  grandest  prospect  to  the  grass  by  the 
side  of  the  path ;  man  perceives  a  largeness  of  sunny 
space,  a  loveliness  of  color,  a  beauty  of  the  fields  and  a 
splendor  in  the  skies,  which  had  been  there  waiting  long 
for  eye  to  see  it.  Nature's  final  revelation  is  to  the  open 
eye  of  intelligence ;  the  poet  looks  on  nature  and  feels 

"  A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts  ;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  soiuethiug  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man, 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things.     Therefore  am  I  still 
A  lover  of  the  meadows  and  the  woods, 
And  mountains  ;  and  of  all  that  we  behold 
From  this  green  earth  ;  of  all  the  mighty  world 
Of  eye  and  ear." 

Even  at  the  risk  of  repetition  we  should  fix  clearly  in 
mind,  as  of  much  importance,  the  double  method  of 
natural  revelation  which  has  thus  been  described,  for 
in  our  subsequent  inquiries  we  shall  have  frequent 
need  to  recur  to  it.  Generalizing  and  stating  it  as  a  law 
of  natural  revelation,  we  have  this  principle  :  there  is 
fii-st  progress  in  the  development  of  the  subject-matter 
which  is  to  be  known  ;  and,  secondly,  there  is  progress 
in  tlie  faculty  ])y  wliich  the  matter  to  be  disclosed  may 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  47 

be  known;  and,  thirdly,  there  is  finer  correspondence 
between  these  two.  Evolution  is  at  last  revelation  of 
formed  nature  to  mind  grown  capable  of  apprehending 
it.  We  shall  consider  later  on  how  much  further  this 
principle  of  natural  revelation  may  carry  us  ;  —  whether 
there  may  not  be  possible  some  further  and  fairer  dis- 
closure of  nature  to  intelligence  still  better  fitted  than 
ours  just  now  to  receive  it ;  whether  things  eye  hath  not 
seen  nor  ear  heard,  nor  heart  of  man  conceived,  may  not 
be  preparing  for  some  full,  final  manifestation  of  them  to 
the  children  of  the  light  and  of  the  day  —  the  creation's 
supreme  and  resplendent  manifestation  at  last  to  the 
children  of  God. 

It  would  lead  somewhat  beyond  our  present  limits  to 
carry  this  line  of  thought  to  its  further  issues  in  the 
recognition  of  the  same  principles  of  revelation  through- 
out human  history.  A  suggestion  only  of  tliis  further 
continuation  of  the  same  method  of  natural  revelation 
in  man's  life  will  be  sufficient  for  our  immediate 
purpose. 

In  human  history  likewise  revelation  has  been  from 
within  through  the  life ;  it  has  been  gradual  and  pro- 
gressive ;  and  it  continues  still  to  be  increasing  mani- 
festation of  the  Spirit  of  the  Christ  to  the  growing 
Christian  sense  of  the  world.  The  Bible,  as  our  trained 
students  of  it  are  now  teaching  us,  is  a  record  of  a 
divine  revelation  through  a  selected  line  of  life.  The 
supreme  revelation  of  the  Father  has  not  been  communi- 
cated to  us  from  the  sky  above ;  it  is  not  as  the  voice  of 
the  angel  standing  in  the  sun  ;  ^  the  Life  was  the  light 
1  Kev.  xix.  17. 


48  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

of  the  world.  The  words  of  the  Master  seem  to  be 
self-luminous  ;  and  the  Father  is  known  through  the 
Christ  living  among  men.  Nor  has  his  disclosure 
of  the  truth  ceased  in  the  witness  to  him  of  the 
first  disciples.  His  authorit}^  has  been  and  is  a  liv- 
ing and  hence  a  growing  authority,  deepening  with 
the  thoughts  of  men's  hearts,  and  expanding  with  the 
life  of  the  world.  There  were  many  things  which 
the  Chi"ist  could  not  say  to  his  immediate  disciples,  be- 
cause the}'  could  not  receive  them.  Their  capacity  to 
perceive  had  not  yet  expanded  to  the  full  manifestation 
of  the  Spirit.  They  should  know  hereafter.  Their 
spiritual  eyes  were  not  then  perfectly  grown  to  see  all 
that  the  Master  might  reveal.  As  Christian  history 
progresses  and  religious  experience  broadens,  not  only 
on  the  one  hand  is  the  truth  more  largely  brought  to 
light,  but  also  Christian  minds  and  hearts  may  be 
selected  and  formed,  and  still  more  finely  trained  to 
perceive  it,  and  to  become  bright  in  it.  In  accordance 
Avith  the  first  principles  of  natural  revelation,  which  we 
have  been  studying,  spiritual  revelation,  the  manifes- 
tation of  supernal  truth  to  the  spirit  that  is  in  man,  has 
never  ceased,  and  it  shall  continue  to  increase  until  the 
full  day  shall  come.  The  Church,  as  the  centuries 
pass,  may  gain  a  more  seeing  eye,  a  truer  mind  and  a 
happier  lieart,  for  the  ever-enlarging  manifestation  of 
redeeming  Love ;  until  at  last  there  may  be  found  on 
earth  tlie  pure  heart  for  the  vision  of  God. 

To  tlie  individual,  also,  the  same  natural  principles 
of  revelation  may  apply ;  nature,  history,  the  Bible,  the 
present  disj^ensation,  may  become  to  us  inci-easing  re- 


EVOLUTION  AS  REVELATION  49 

velation,  as  in  the  personal  life,  and  its  growth  in  grace, 
we  acquire  clearer  spiritual  eyes  to  se^Ajke  whole  world 
lying  in  the  full  light  of  love.  It  will  be  at  last  a 
sunny  world  for  the  sunny  ey^^  to  see.  For  there  is 
profound  truth  alike  of  evolution  and  of  its  revelation 
in  Goethe's  saying  that  the  eye  must  itself  be  sunny  that 
would  see  the  sun. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  been  studying  the  method  of 
natural  revelation  irrespective  of  the  contents  of  revela- 
tion. It  is  necessary  to  inquire  first  as  to  the  method 
of  it  before  we  can  know  the  truths  which  it  may  con- 
tain. It  will  prove  an  immense  gain  for  our  faiths  if 
we  may  first  understand  somewhat  how  nature  may 
teach  us,  or  in  what  ways  we  may  expect  to  hear  what- 
ever the  universe  may  have  to  say  to  us.  In  further 
chapters  we  shall  follow  on  to  know  some  of  these 
words  which  in  this  manner  of  speech  nature  may  have 
to  declare  ;  we  shall  thus  in  a  way  which  is  scientifically 
true  inquire  how  much  these  words  of  natural  revelation 
may  signify  for  our  most  human  faiths  and  our  dearest 
hope. 


% 

\!HAPTER  III 

THE  FACT   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE 

Having  given  in  the  last  chapter  some  account  of 
how  nature  speaks  to  us,  or  of  the  method  of  revelation 
through  evolution,  we  pass  next  to  a  study  of  some  of 
the  chief  words  which  nature  may  have  to  declare,  as 
we  ourselves  have  become  intelligences  sufficiently 
evolved  to  hear  whatever  nature  is  waiting  to  make 
known  to  us. 

The  first  question  —  a  vital  one  for  the  subsequent 
interpretation  of  nature  —  relates  to  the  guidance  of 
evolution :  Does  nature  show  direction  towards  any  def- 
inite end?  Has  the  created  world  rightly  been  com- 
pared to  a  ship  which  has  been  abandoned  as  a  derelict 
upon  the  high  seas,  in  itself  evidently  fitted  up  and 
ordered  for  some  good  voyage,  yet  left  without  helms- 
man to  drift  as  an  aimless  world  over  the  deeps  of  infin- 
ite space  :  or  has  the  world  received  from  the  beginning 
definite  direction  toward  some  goal,  and  has  it  kept 
tliut  direction  throughout  its  age-long  course,  —  is  it 
keeping  itself  true  to  it  now?  As  Mr.  Ward  tersely 
puts  it,  Is  evolution  "  without  guidance  or  with  guid- 
ance "  ? 

Observe,  as  a  preliminary  consideration,  that  any 
evidence  which  the  course  of  nature  may   disclose   of 

50 


THE  FACT  OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE        51 

direction  towards  some  end,  is  not  to  be  «et  aside  by 
any  ignorance  of  ours  concerning  the  nature  of  the  end 
towards  which  all  things  may  be  moving.  It  would  not 
follow  that  a  ship  may  not  be  sailing  on  a  predetermined 
course,  because  it  may  be  sailing  under  sealed  orders, 
and  no  one  on  board  may  know  well  its  ultimate  desti- 
nation. Even  if  nature  be  under  orders  whose  seal  no 
man  may  break,  nevertheless  it  may  be  moving  on 
towards  something  which  is  yet  to  be  revealed.  The 
first  question  for  us  to  determine  is  one  of  fact,  whether 
it  is  moving  along  any  definite,  progressive  course. 

Neither  would  it  necessarily  follow  that  the  course  of 
visible  nature  may  not  be  as  a  personally  conducted 
tour,  although  the  director  of  it,  and  organizer  of  it  all, 
may  be  represented  at  different  times  only  by  his  agents, 
and  may  never  appear  personally  while  the  journey  is 
being  made.  The  main  question  relates  primarily  to 
the  fact  of  direction  in  nature ;  then  we  may  inquire 
next  what  may  be  learned  of  its  character.  If  there  is 
any  evidence  of  guidance  in  evolution,  we  must  find  it 
in  the  evolution  itself.  Matter  we  know,  and  force  we 
know:  Does  our  science  know  anything  of  direction? 
of  direction  towards  an  end?  Are  there  any  signs 
that  there  is  a  directive  touch  guiding  nature's  course, 
although  no  directing  hand  may  be  visible  to  us  ?  Or 
how  shall  such  direction  as  we  observe  in  nature  be 
explained?  Instead  of  confessing,  "I  believe  in  God 
the  Father  Almighty,"  it  is  easy  to  say,  "  I  believe  in 
Matter  in  Motion  "  ;  but  will  that  short  creed  prove  long 
enough  to  stretch  around  the  facts  which  nature  pre- 
sents, as  we  are   shown   the   ends   of  evolution  which 


62  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

already  nature   has   actually   gained,  and   the   process 
through  which  they  have  been  reached? 

Our  human  experience  may  be  large  enough,  our 
positive  knowledge  may  measure  distance  long  enough 
along  the  way  in  which  evolution  has  proceeded,  to  en- 
able us  to  determine  that  as  matter  of  fact  there  has 
been  and  is  movement  along  some  line  ;  and  to  Avarrant 
us  also  in  some  inferences  as  to  the  character  of  this 
direction,  Avhether  its  tendency  on  the  whole  is  towards 
higher  vital  values  and  happier  issues.  Possessing 
for  my  habitation  a  bit  of  a  river's  shore,  I  may  be 
able  from  my  little  space  along  its  bank  to  perceive 
tliat  there  is  a  stream  which  flows  one  way,  and  not 
merely  a  succession  of  aimless,  wind-swept  waves, 
breaking  upon  the  beach.  I  may  know  even  from 
my  brief  life  here  that  there  is  in  nature's  course 
a  tendency,  sure  and  strong,  all  in  one  direction ;  al- 
though T  may  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  fountains 
and  far  off  springs  of  all  this  mighty  motion,  and  can 
only  dream  of  the  outlet  and  some  large  hereafter, 
towards  which  all  things  seem  hastening  on.  And  if  I 
may  find  from  present  observation  reason  to  believe  that 
nature  does  not  resemble  a  stagnant  pool,  stirred  only  by 
tlie  })assing  breezes  ;  if  I  may  perceive  that  human  history 
is  not  as  a  heap  of  accidental  sands  swept  together  by 
ever-shifting  winds,  only  to  1)e  scattered  again ;  —  this 
miK.'li  f)f  knowledge  and  of  confidence  will  form  the  first 
essentiid  article  at  least  of  a  o-rand  natural  faith.  For 
us  to  Ix'lieve  in  matter  without  any  idea  in  it,  is  mate- 
rialism ;  to  believe  in  matter  with  some  idea  in  it  is 
sj)iiitnalism.     We  can  be  satisfied  to  remain  agnostics, 


THE  FACT  OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE        58 

only  when  we  shall  have  searched  through  the  material 
realm  for  the  ideas  of  it,  and  have  exhausted  all  the 
meanings  which  the  facts  of  the  universe  and  its  evolu- 
tion may  possibly  open  up  to  us. 

We  shall  have,  therefore,  to  survey  first  the  facts  of 
evolution  which  indicate  some  direction ;  and  then  we 
may  consider  their  higher  interpretation.  In  this  sur- 
vey even  slight  signs,  or  apparently  incidental  facts  of 
nature  are  not  to  be  passed  by ;  for,  to  apply  to  our  pur- 
pose the  line  with  which  Dante  began  his  progress 
through  the  spheres,  if  we  find  ourselves  as  "in  a 
gloomy  wood,"  "  midway  of  this  our  mortal  life,"  then 
certainly  the  trail  which  may  lead  out  to  some  sunny 
opening,  may  best  be  followed  by  the  eye  from  whose 
notice  does  not  escape  the  least  trace  of  footprint,  or  the 
bending  of  a  blade  of  grass,  or  the  occasional  sunbeams 
through  the  thick  leaves. 

We  proceed  accordingly  to  take  up  next  in  some 
detail  the  facts  which  give  indication  of  the  direction 
which  has  actually  been  pursued  through  evolution. 
We  shall  go  forward  surely,  if  we  can  succeed  in  fol- 
lowing slowly  nature's  way  on  and  out. 

There  has  been  direction  of  motion  in  the  inorganic 
world. 

Evolution  in  the  physical  realm  has  started  from 
some  definite  beginning,  followed  a  determinate  course, 
and  reached  at  least  a  way-station  of  its  progress  in 
the  world  around  us.  The  route  may  not  always  have 
been  straightforward;  at  points  it  may  seem  to  curve 
back   upon   itself;    but    there   has   been   a   continuous 


64  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

track  all  the  way,  and  in  pursuing  it  the  energy  of  the 
universe  has  reached  its  present  end  in  the  world  as  it 
now  exists  for  us.  It  is  not  scientifically  conceived,  if 
we  should  say,  from  millions  of  possibilities  the  physi- 
cal universe  has  happened  to  take  its  existing  form. 
The  only  conception  which  a  thorough-going  evolution- 
ist should  admit,  is  that  from  given  primitive  conditions 
the  existino-  universe  has  resulted  in  a  reofular  and 
causal  sequence  of  events.  We  do  not  overlook  in  this 
connection  an  ingenious  argument  for  the  play  of  cliance 
in  the  formation  of  the  w^orld,  winch  in  the  supposed 
interests  of  freedom  an  eminent  mathematician  has  de- 
vised. His  supposition  in  favor  of  chance  and  against 
a  universal  mechanical  necessity  has  been  thus  put 
forth  :  Of  a  hundred  persons  who  start  out  to  walk 
in  many  different  directions,  it  is  supposed  that  on  a 
theory  of  mathematical  chances  it  might  come  about 
that  ten  might  walk  in  the  same  direction,  and  that 
any  two  of  the  ten,  who  also  happen  to  walk  at  the 
same  pace,  might  in  time  be  found  walking  together. 
These  comi)anies  of  fellow-travellers,  going  two  by  two, 
would  thus  have  been  brought  together  by  mere  chance. 
So  the  atoms,  it  is  imagined,  starting  out  and  travelling 
in  their  several  ways,  ma}^  have  accidentally  fallen  into 
separate  groups.  So  in  molecular  groups  order  may 
have  arisen  from  a  chance  natural  selection.  The  sup- 
position is  good  as  far  as  it  goes.  But  it  overlooks  the 
stragglers.  What  has  become  of  the  ninety  of  the 
original  hundred  travellers  who  did  not  happen  to  fall 
into  the  same  way  or  the  same  pace?  The  stragglers 
sluiuld  also  be  in  evidence  somewhere  along  the  road. 


THE   FACT  OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE        65 

The  unselectecl  and  unaccompanied  wayfarers  would 
also  turn  up  as  they  pass  irregularly  along.  But  in  our 
universe  of  order  no  such  wayfarers  appear  anywhere. 
There  are  no  straggling  atoms;  there  are  no  solitary 
elements,  so  far  as  we  know.  It  is  everywhere  order 
and  uniformity,  so  far  as  appears.  There  is  no  limbo 
in  nature  for  lost  atoms.  There  is  no  apparent  waste 
of  enei-gy  in  aborted  possibilities  of  worlds. 

The  origin  of  things  indeed  lies  beyond  knowledge ; 
that  is  something  for  us  to  think  about,  not  to  see.  But 
the  known  fact  is  this :  where  things  first  come  within 
our  sight,  they  have  already  received  definite  form 
and  determinate  direction.  They  come  into  the  field  of 
knowledge  as  a  procession  of  forms,  keeping  time  and 
marchiuQf  to  their  own  music,   like  an  ordered  host. 

The  physicists  suppose  that  the  original  condition  of 
things  was  something  very  different  from  matter  as  we 
now  have  to  deal  with  it.  They  suppose  atomic  matter 
to  have  been  derived  from  some  primal  ether,  which  has 
its  peculiar  properties,  very  hard  for  us  to  comprehend ; 
they  describe  it  as  a  perfect  fluid,  the  perfection  of 
which  seems  to  consist  in  its  not  possessing  the  ordinary 
characteristics  which  we  mean  by  the  word  fluid.  But 
whatever  this  first  estate  and  original  innocence  of 
ethereal  matter  was,  certainly  at  the  first  point  where 
onr  science  may  lay  hold  of  it,  it  has  already  acquired 
very  definite  characters  and  fixed  habits;  it  has  been 
put  under  bonds  to  its  own  constitution,  and  in  all  its 
subsequent  motions  it  must  follow  the  laws  of  its  struc- 
ture. In  a  word,  our  knowledge  of  the  universe  begins 
with  energy  which  has  already  acquired  definite  direc- 


56  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

tion.  It  is  not  energy  which  is  free  to  take  form  in 
indefniite  chance  creations;  it  is  energy  already  har- 
nessed to  an  idea,  and  sent  towards  the  very  end  which 
has  actually  been  attained  in  the  existing  physical  uni- 
veree.  Moreover,  so  determinate  is  the  energy  of  the 
^\•orld  that  we  may  follow  scientifically  the  evolution 
of  the  physical  universe  step  by  step  with  much  plausi- 
bility. The  course  of  it  runs  forwards,  concrete  and 
definite,  as  a  railway  track ;  and  we  can  name  several 
of  its  way-stations.  The  first  is  known  as  the  atom. 
According  to  our  best  scientific  imagination  an  atom  is 
a  vortex-ring,  —  a  whirl  of  ether.  The  atoms  are  so 
many  original  whirls.  Atomic  matter  is  nature's  first 
dance.  When  two  atoms  dance  together,  when  two 
ethereal  whirls  are  made  one,  then  the  molecule  is 
formed.  It  may  be  an  unstable  combination.  Partners 
are  changed,  and  doubtless  it  took  some  ages  for  them 
to  settle  down  into  stable  and  harmonious  relations. 
But  in  time,  and  under  cooling  temperature,  one  after 
another  of  the  seventy  or  more  elements  of  the  physical 
order  were  formed.  Then  masses  of  elemental  matter, 
so  constituted,  take  shape  and  position ;  nebula3,  mete- 
orites, stars  appear;  the  ancient  order  of  the  heavens 
was  born.  Has  not  Professor  Lockyer  traced  out  for 
our  wondering  gaze  the  evolution  of  the  stars  ?  And 
on  this  earth  the  physical  process  continued  as  it 
w  as  determined  ;  bodies  composed  of  different  elements 
a})p('ared  in  permanent  forms;  crystallization  occurred, 
the  diamond  is  pressed  into  being.  The  geologists  have 
discovered  also  a  corresponding  order  of  evolution  in  the 
development  of  tlie  successive  geological  faunse.     It  is 


THE  FACT  OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE         57 

described  by  Professor  Le  Conte  as  a  general  movement 
upwards  and  onwards,  with  diversity  of  direction  and 
rate  of  motion  in  different  localities,  and  with  re-adjust- 
ments and  re-distributions  of  faunai  at  critical  epochs.^ 
It  is  a  long  distance  between  the  mathematically  imag- 
ined perfect  fluid  at  the  start,  and  the  existent  earth, 
with  its  diversified  physical  constitution,  its  mountains, 
and  rivers,  and  fields,  and  oceans,  and  its  precious 
stones,  —  a  world  fitted  for  life  and  ministered  unto  by 
all  the  heavens  ;  —  but  this  is  the  end  which  has  been 
reached ;  it  is  a  physical  and  climatic  end  which  renders 
life  possible  on  the  surface  of  a  world ;  and  to  this  end 
the  evolution  has  been  sent  from  the  beginning.  The 
direction  throughout  towards  this  goal  is  not  itself  an 
accidental  by-play  of  the  evolution;  rather  it  is  the 
character  of  the  evolution  as  one  whole.  And  char- 
acter is  always  something  ideal.  The  course  of  the 
evolution  apparently  has  the  character  of  an  idea :  it  is 
like  a  process  of  thought ;  it  has  moved  on  from  a  begin- 
ning to  an  end,  as  a  process  of  thought  moves  on.  The 
constellations  are  crystallizations  of  God's  thought. 
But  we  are  asserting  at  this  point  only  the  ideal  appear- 
ance of  the  process  as  a  whole  of  inorganic  evolution. 

A  further  known  characteristic  of  physical  evolution 
is  next  to  be  noticed;  viz.,  the  passing  its  work  on  to 
the  higher  vital  order.  When  the  physical  evolution 
of  the  world  had  gone  apparently  as  far  as  it  could  in 
its  own  way,  it  did  not  stop  and  turn  back  upon  itself ; 
it  handed  its  energy  over  to  another,  a  promising  order 

1  Popular  Science  Monthly,  March,  1900. 


58  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

of  evolution  beyond  itself.  Or  rather  we  should  say, 
the  original  energy  which  had  been  manifesting  itself 
in  the  evolution  of  the  physical  Avorld,  when  that  was 
finished,  and  nothing  much  better  was  to  be  gained 
on  that  field,  did  not  stop,  and  turn  back ;  it  went  on  in 
a  new  conveyance,  in  a  more  excellent  way,  towards 
the  [)romise  of  organic   evolution. 

A  traveller  hastening  on  his  way  may  have  to  make 
several  changes  in  his  carriage  before  he  reaches  his  des- 
tination. He  may  take  now  a  railway,  or  a  steamship,  or 
other  means  of  conveyance,  transferring  himself  from  one 
to  another,  in  order  to  reach  his  journey's  end.  Simi- 
larly, evolution,  or  the  energy  of  evolution,  has  seemed 
like  a  traveller  who  changes  at  times  his  carriage,  but 
keeps  pressing  always  towards  his  goal.  Energy  has  been 
handed  over,  energy  has  been  passed  up  from  one  order 
to  another.  It  has  passed  from  the  ethereal  mode  of  it 
to  the  atomic :  it  has  been  transferred  from  the  molec- 
ular to  the  vital  conveyance  of  it.  And  moreover  it 
is  profoundly  significant,  that  just  when  the  energy  of 
evolution  seems  to  have  gone  as  far  as  it  can  in  one  way, 
and  must  stop,  and  turn  back,  or  make  a  new  depart- 
ure, tlien  it  takes  a  fresh  start  in  another  order.  The 
atom  was  a  new  departure,  and  by  means  of  the  atoms 
the  creation  was  carried  on  out  of  the  ether  up  to  the 
fixed  stars.  Life  on  the  earth  was  a  new  start.  The 
fii-st  l)it  of  protoplasm,  however  it  originated,  marked 
tlic  end  of  definite  movement  on  one  plane  of  nature, 
and  the  continuation  of  it  in  a  ncAV  direction,  on 
another  line  and  towards  something  not  attainable  on 
the  lower  plane,  but  to  be  reached  in  time,  far  beyond 


THE   FACT   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE         59 

all  that  had  been  before  it.  Protoplasm  —  the  coming 
of  the  protoplasmic  order  —  is  the  beginning  of  a  new 
reign,  and  the  promise  and  potency  of  a  glory  yet  to  be 
revealed.  When  the  first  living  cell  appeared  in  some 
far  off  geologic  time,  it  was  nature's  prophecy  of  the 
new  earth ;  —  behold !  the  wilderness  shall  blossom  as 
the  rose,  and  the  stream  of  the  molecules  shall  become 
as  the  river  of  the  water  of  life. 

We  turn  now  to  this  further  and  still  more  significant 
indication  of  guidance  in  nature,  —  the  Fact  of  Direc- 
tion in  the  Organic  World. 

We  will  search  first  for  the  evidence  of  it  within  the 
living  cell.  For  if  there  appears  to  be  direction  in  the 
movements  of  the  cell,  we  may  look  for  providence  of  a 
similar  kind  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  Or,  conversely, 
it  mio-ht  be  put :  If  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  there 
is  any  providence  in  the  great  outlying  world,  we  may 
look  for  direction  also  within  the  least  cell.  The  in- 
ternal ordering  of  the  cell  may  present  providence  in 
miniature.  We  may  scientifically  apply  to  the  divine 
providence  the  test  which  Jesus  applied  to  the  conduct 
of  his  disciples,  and  say  that  if  it  is  faithful  in  that 
which  is  least  it  will  be  faithful  also  in  that  which  is 
greatest.  Nor  can  we  separate  in  our  reasonings  the 
problem  of  providence  in  the  least  and  in  the  greatest ; 
through  the  microscope  and  the  telescope,  over  the 
broad  ranges  of  history,  and  in  the  beating  of  our  hearts, 
it  is  one  and.  the  same  problem  of  the  rational  direction 
and  moral  guidance  of  life.  Hence  if  we  would  inter- 
pret the  cell  aright,  we  must  not  only  examine  it  under 


60  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

the  microscope;  wc  mast  focus  also  upon  its  mystery 
all  our  light  of  life;  and,  conversely,  the  little  living 
cell  may  have  its  contribution,  not  to  be  despised,  to 
make  to  our  spiritual  philosophy  of  life. 

We  have  already  given  a  general  description  of  the 
structure  of  the  cell.  Our  present  point  is  that  living 
matter  in  its  lowest  power,  far  back  as  we  may  know  it, 
has  already  received  definite  structure.  In  its  least 
dimensions  it  is  defined,  determinate,  organized  matter. 
A  mere  enumeration  of  the  different  parts  and  elements 
which  appear  in  a  cell  during  its  life-history  is  sufficient 
to  impress  this  fact  upon  us ;  we  will  read  them  off,  as 
they  are  technically  named,  simply  by  the  enumeration 
to  show  what  an  assembly  of  definite  parts,  fitted  to 
each  other,  lie  packed  in  the  cell.  They  are  the  cell- 
wall,  the  cytoplasm,  or  cell-matter;  the  nucleus,  the 
nuclear  membrane,  the  nucleolus,  the  attraction 
spheres,  the  centrosomes,  and  even  smaller  dots,  the 
centrioles,  within  these,  the  chromatin  matter,  the 
chromosomes,  the  polar  bodies,  the  asters,  the  spindle 
fibres,  the  linin  threads,  the  protoplasmic  granules,  the 
cell-plate,  and  some  other  things  not  quite  distinguish- 
able enough  as  yet  to  be  named.i  You  perceive  what  a 
complicated  factory  world  this  microscopic  sphere  is,  and 
from  it,  in  response  to  calls  from  the  outer  world,  issue 
all  the  variegated  and  rich  patterns  of  life's  ceaseless 
weaving. 

Now  the  significant  fact  to  which  in  this  connection 
attention  sliould  Ije  directed  is  this :  what  this  egg-cell 
produces  has  already  been  determined  by  its  organiza- 

^  See  Figure  1,  p.  31  ;  and  2,  p.  34. 


THE   FACT   OF  DIRECTION  IN   NATURE        61 

tion.  It  is  so  put  together,  its  several  parts  so  related, 
and  their  mutual  working  so  adjusted,  that  it  produces 
regularly  certain  definite  results.  It  is  so  much  matter 
well  organized  for  work.  Because  it  is  made  as  it  is,  it 
does  what  it  does.  Direction  has  already  been  given  to 
it.  Our  first  knowledge  of  life  is  knowledge  of  matter 
which  has  been  brought  under  some  control  for  certain 
ends. 

On  the  very  threshold  then  of  the  organic  realm  the 
question  meets  us,  How  is  this  fact  of  organization  to 
be  understood  ?  From  whence  did  it  come  ?  What 
does  it  mean?  To  what  has  it  been  sent?  In  other 
words,  at  the  first  point  in  the  way  of  life  where  science 
may  enter  it,  we  observe  this  sign  of  direction,  —  organ- 
ization for  a  result ;  how  was  that  sign  set  up  there,  and 
what  does  it  signify?  This  little  cell-world  does  not 
come  out  of  the  unknown  as  a  fortuitous  heap  of  atoms ; 
it  is  not  a  chaos  without  form  and  void.  It  is  a  thought- 
ful growth.  Some  Spirit  has  brooded  over  the  living 
cell ;  some  Power  has  directed  it  along  its  way  of  life. 
Herein  lies  the  wonder,  the  first  natural  miracle,  shall 
we  call  it?  of  matter  definitely  formed  and  organized 
for  the  exercise  of  specific  functions  in  the  development 
of  life.  Certain  energies,  wliatever  they  may  be,  have 
been  marshalled  within  this  limited  field,  and  led  in  dis- 
tinct and  intelligible  formation  for  the  coming  conflict 
of  life,  as  much  so  as  any  regiments  drawn  up  in  array 
for  the  battle.  These  vital  atoms  are  no  mob  force. 
They  have  been  drilled,  and  given  their  place,  and  they 
keep  true  time  and  obey  their  orders.  The  individual 
units  may  be   changed,  some  may  fall  away;  but  the 


62  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

lines  of  the  formation  are  kept,  and  shall  not  be  lost  in 
the  whole  subsequent  struggle  of  life.  In  short,  it  is  a 
primal  fact,  which  waits  to  be  interpreted,  that  matter 
has  acquired  delinite  vital  direction  in  the  egg-cell. 

We  have  thus  far  been  dealing  with  nature's  vital 
elements  and  observing  the  signs  which  they  show 
that  they  are  sent  to  some  purpose,  as  they  begin  life's 
mission  upon  the  earth.  We  proceed  further  to  inquire 
what  nature  next  does  vv^ith  them,  and  how  she  contrives 
to  make  the  most  of  them.  The  lowest  animals,  the 
least  of  all  nature's  children  of  promise,  are  organisms 
which  consist  of  but  single  cells  —  the  so-called  uni- 
cellular organisms.  Sir  Fowell  Buxton  once  attributed 
his  success  in  life  to  his  habit  of  being  a  whole  man  to 
one  thing  at  a  time.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
primitive  unicellular  organisms,  for  they  owe  their  suc- 
cess in  life  to  a  similar  principle.  An  amceha  can  be 
notliing  else  than  a  whole  cell  to  one  thing  at  a  time. 
Without  mouth,  or  stomach,  or  any  separate  organs,  it 
manages  to  feed  simply  by  throwing  itself  around  and 
engulhng  the  particle  whose  nutriment  it  absorbs.  But 
nature  does  not  remain  long  in  that  primitive  undiffer- 
entiated condition.  It  proceeds  soon  to  combine  and 
to  diversify  its  original  units.  A  principle  of  division  of 
lai)()r  appears  very  early,  and  as  we  follow  up  this  new 
way  of  the  distinction  and  combination  of  parts  for  the 
production  of  better  vital  results,  we  sliall  mark  in- 
creasing evidences  of  some  direction  in  nature.  Very 
soon  in  tlie  history  of  life  an  idea  of  growth,  the  fine 
constructive    idea  of  growth   through    the    division    of 


THE  FACT  OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE        63 

labor,  seems  to  have  been  introduced.  The  beginnings 
of  this  new  tendency  may  be  traced  even  in  the  one- 
celled  organisms;  for  in  the  Infusoria  —  minute  animal- 
cules which  will  swarm  in  an  infusion  of  hay — there 
begin  to  be  distinguishable  something  like  a  mouth,  and 
food  vacuoles,  or  temporary  holes  at  least  for  digestion, 
and  some  other  rudiments  of  different  parts.  One  of 
the  first  noticeable  steps  in  this  direction  of  the  division 
of  labor  is  to  be  seen  in  aggregations  of  cells  in  one 
living  mass.  Near  the  beginnings  of  the  vegetable  world 
there  is  to  be  found  a  small  transparent  ball  of  jelly,  in 
which  several  spherical  particles  lie  embedded,  which 
upon  investigation  prove  to  be  living  substances  con- 
veniently rolled  up  together  in  the  same  globule,  but 
still  separated  from  one  another.  We  see  here  in  its 
primitive  form  a  collective  life  of  cells.  It  seems  to  be 
nature's  first  attempt  at  socialism  —  a  mere  collection  of 
individuals  loosely  bound  together,  hardly  as  yet  a 
working  colony  of  cells.  But  that  soon  comes  upon 
life's  stage.  For  in  some  other  quite  primitive  forms 
individual  cells  have  not  only  been  collected  together, 
but  they  have  thrown  out  threads  of  protoplasm  by  means 
of  which  they  become  loosely  interw^oven ;  as  in  a  species 
which  for  this  reason  has  received  the  scientific  name  of 
31ikrogro7nia  socialis  —  the  social  Mikrogromia.^  Nature 
makes  another  early  effort  in  the  direction  of  social 
existence  in  certain  forms  in  which  separate  cells  seem 
to  have  run  together  and  become  one  large  protoplasmic 
mass,  but  with  several  distinct  nuclei,  as  in  the  fungus 
growth  called  Myxomycetes  ;  and  this  primitive  kind  of 

1  Hertwig,  Die  Zelle  und  die  Gewebe,  B.  ii.  s.  11. 


64  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

associated  life,  is  frequently  met  with  near  the  begin- 
nings of  the  vegetal  and  animal  world.^ 

Thus  far,  however,  up  the  scale  the  separate  cells  are 
only  associated  together,  but  have  as  yet  attained  no  dis- 
tinctive functions,  and  no  very  definite  and  permanent 
division  of  labor  between  them  has  been  as  yet  arranged. 
But  nature,  luiving  gone  thus  far,  proceeds  straight  on 
in  the  same  direction ;  above  the  first  class  of  unicellular 
organisms,  and  just  bej^ond  these  primitive  approaches 
towards  the  communal  life  among  them,  which  we 
have  observed,  there  has  come  into  existence  a  second 
distinct  class  of  animal  organisms,  composed  of  several 
cells,  which  begin  to  assume  mutual  and  more  and  more 
definite  orijanic  relations  to  one  another.  This  class  in 
distinction  from  the  first  class,  the  protozoa,  is  called 
the  metazoa;  several  zooids,  or  animal  units,  are  united 
in  a  mutual  life.  But  the  vital  association  of  cells  in 
one  organism  is  a  very  primitive  connection  —  a  quite 
informal  gathering  —  when  Ave  first  catch  sight  of  it  in 
nature.  It  may  consist  at  first  simply  of  a  binding  to- 
gether of  a  series  of  independent  cells  upon  a  common 
stock,  like  blossoms  upon  a  single  stem  ;  as  in  the 
instance  of  a  beautiful  early  flower  of  life,  known  by 
the  hard  scientific  name  of  Zoothamnium  arhuscula,  — 
the  tree-like  creature,  —  which  consists  of  a  main  stem 
giving  off  several  branches,  on  each  of  which  numerous 
bell-shaped  animalcules,  ''  like  foxgloves  or  Canterbury 
bells,"  are  borne.  It  is  a  compound  organism,  and 
exists  in  its  lowly  loveliness  as  another  and  pleasing 
sign  of  the  direction  which  nature  is  following  towards 

^    Ilcrtwig,  Die  Zdle  und  die  Gewebe,  B.  ii.  s.  14. 


THE  FACT  OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE        Q^ 

organized  life.  In  this  specimen,  moreover,  we  find  still 
another  indication  of  advance  along  this  same  line,  for 
the  blossoms,  or  zooids,  as  the  living  units  are  called, 
are  seen  on  close  inspection  to  be  not  all  quite 
alike.  Most  of  them  are  bell-shaped,  but  here  and  there 
among  them  are  found  larger  bodies  of  a  globular  form, 
and  in  some  other  respects  different  from  the  rest. 
They  cannot  draw  in  nourishment  as  do  the  others ; 
but  if  we  watch  them  we  shall  see  that  they  have 
acquired  a  function  and  a  use  of  their  own;  for  they 
will  become  detached  from  the  parent  stock,  "swim 
about  freely  for  a  time,  then  settle  down,  develop  a  stalk 
and  mouth,  and  finally,  by  repeated  fission,  give  rise 
to  the  new  adult,  tree-like  colony."  This  sign  shows 
that  nature,  proceeding  with  quiet  determination  in  the 
direction  of  organization,  has  now  clearly,  unmistakably 
introduced  the  method  never  afterwards  to  be  abandoned 
of  division  of  labor.  The  same  tree-stock  has  produced 
two  kinds  of  cells  —  nutritive  zooids,  and  reproductive 
zooids.^  Associated  life  in  two  kinds  has  been  humbly 
begun;  and  once  begun  it  will  continue  on  the  earth 
as  the  more  excellent  way.  We  pause  to  note  the  im- 
portance of  this  fact.  The  advent  of  life  in  two  kinds, 
vegetative  and  sexual,  is  one  of  early  nature's  great 
events.  A  principle  of  utmost  value  for  the  develop- 
ment of  life  has  thus  been  quietly  introduced.  The 
division  of  living  matter  into  two  complementary  parts 
—  the  nutritive  and  the  reproductive  cells  —  shall  ere- 
long become  the  prevailing  and  more  and  more  elaborate 
method  of  vital  evolution.     In  this  far  off  and  humblest 

1  Parker,  Elem.  Biol.  pp.  134  sq. 
5 


66  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

beginning  of  sex  in  these  primitive  colonies  of  cells,  lies 
the  first  promise  and  potency  even  of  our  human  life  in 
the  help-mating  and  help-meeting  of  man  and  woman. 
This  principle  of  mutuality,  this  fine  idea  of  division  of 
labor  and  of  mutual  service,  once  gained  in  nature,  shall  be 
carried  clear  through  to  its  human  consummation.  What 
God  in  the  beginning  hath  thus  joined  together  even  in 
life's  first  motions,  cannot  henceforth  be  put  asunder. 

This  new  and  better  way  of  mutually  helpful  life  hav- 
ing once  been  entered  into,  nature  follows  it  up  vigor- 
ously with  ever  fresh,  more  differentiated  and  mutually 
dependent  forms.  Not  far  removed  from  the  primitive 
colonies  just  described  is  another  creature,  the  Siphono- 
phores  ^  in  which  the  division  of  labor  becomes  a  little 
more  marked  and  enduring  between  different  parts 
which  grow  together  on  the  same  tree-like  stock  ;  some 
of  them  serve  the  whole  for  the  purpose  of  swimming, 
some  for  feeding,  and  others  for  reproducing  the  species. 
As  nature  hastens  on  through  these  gradations  it  reaches 
in  time  organisms  which  show  in  their  development 
distinct  layers  of  cells,  from  which  entirely  different 
organs  for  definite  use,  but  in  mutual  dependence,  may 
be  developed.  The  common  hydras,  or  polypes,  mark 
the  beginnings  of  this  further  course  of  evolution  of 
separate  but  mutually  serviceable  organs  in  one  body ; 
and  so  the  process  in  this  good  direction,  according  to 
til  is  happy  idea  of  nature,  goes  on  and  on  until  in  the 
liigher  animals  and  in  our  own  anatomy  we  reach  the 
end  and  perfection  of  this  long  way  of  organization  for 
hfe.     It  has  been  a  long  way  from  the  two  layers  of 

1  Ilertwig.  Die  Zelle  unci  die  Geivebe,  p.  18. 


THE  FACT   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE        67 

cells  in  a  polype  to  the  maii}^  associated  organs  in  the 
body  of  a  man ;  but  nature  has  followed  this  way,  and 
in  some  manner  has  been  directed  through  this  one  way, 
and  held  to  its  course ;  and  the  end  which  is  reached 
justifies  the  direction  which  from  the  start  has  been 
taken.  The  introduction  and  growth  of  the  principle 
of  division  of  labor,  marks,  we  are  reasoning,  one 
definite  line  of  direction  which  evolution  has  actually 
taken.  It  is  a  course  of  nature  from  something  to 
something,  which  may  be  scientifically  drawn. 

Other  lines  of  direction  which  may  be  traced  on 
nature's  map,  we  shall  next  follow  up ;  and  then  with 
the  facts  well  before  us  from  the  least  to  the  greatest, 
we  may  reason  with  more  confidence  concerning  the 
character  of  the  guidance  of  evolution.  We  may  then 
be  able  to  judge  who  was  the  better  reasoner,  Kepler,  the 
astronomer,  or  his  wife  in  their  discussion  of  the  salad 
at  their  supper-table:  ''Yesterday,"  the  astronomer 
relates,  "  when  weary  with  writing,  and  my  mind  quite 
dusty  Avith  considering  the  atoms,  I  was  called  to 
supper,  and  a  salad  I  had  asked  for,  was  set  before 
me.  It  seems  then,  I  said,  that  if  pewter  dishes,  leaves 
of  lettuce,  grains  of  salt,  drops  of  vinegar  and  oil,  and 
slices  of  eggs,  had  been  floating  about  in  the  air  from  all 
eternity,  it  might  at  last  happen  by  chance  that  there 
would  come  a  salad.  '  Yes,'  said  my  wife,  '  but  not  so 
nice  and  well  dressed  as  this  of  mine  is.' ''  If  it  re- 
quires intelligence  to  make  so  nice  a  salad,  perhaps  we 
may  find  good  reason  to  suspect  that  Mind  may  have 
had  considerable  part  to  play  in  the  evolution  of  such 
a  world  as  ours. 


CHAPTER   IV 

DIRECTION   IN   THE  HISTORY   OF   LIVING   CELLS 

In  the  last  chapter  we  traced  the  indications  of  some 
directing  agency  through  inorganic  development,  in  the 
earliest  organization  of  life  within  the  cell,  and  still 
further  in  the  association  of  cells  in  colonies,  and  the 
advancing  organization  of  the  vegetal  and  animal  world 
upon  the  principle  of  division  of  labor  and  mutual  ser- 
vice. The  signs  of  some  direction  in  evolution  will 
become  apparent  again  and  distinct,  if  we  follow  more 
particularly  the  embryological  development  of  living 
matter  from  its  beginnings  in  the  egg-cell  through  its 
successive  stages  to  the  full  grown  adult  form.  We 
shall  discover  impressive  evidences  that  some  thing 
determines  and  guides  evolution,  if  with  pure  and 
reverent  eyes  we  gaze  into  the  mystery  of  the  reproduc- 
tion of  plant  and  animal  life.  Amid  secrets  of  origins 
which  eye  cannot  see,  and  from  a  sacred  mystery  of 
birth  and  inheritance  which  no  science  can  wholly  re- 
move, one  trutli  becomes  clear  and  sure,  —  the  truth 
that  there  is  a  predetermined  and  specific  direction  of 
every  species  and  of  each  organ  of  the  body  in  the 
prenatal  development  of  life.  Embryological  develop- 
ment follows  with  unwavering  fidelity  fixed  lines  of 
growth.      Embryology   is    one   of    the   exact    sciences 

68 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     69 

because  it  rests  upon  these  primal  fidelities  of  living 
nature  to  the  decrees  of  perfection  which  are  already 
determined  within  the  egg-cell. 

It  is  now  scientifically  known  that  a  few  dots  of 
microscopic  matter,  more  or  less,  within  the  Qgg->  deter- 
mine the  whole  subsequent  life-history;  and  further 
that  from  these  determinants  put  at  the  beginning  in 
the  Qgg^  —  an  exact  number  of  them  for  each  species,  — ■ 
the  embryological  development  proceeds  with  an  un- 
varying constancy  in  response  to  the  environment. 
Two  facts  here  are  significant.  The  one  is  this :  for 
each  species  the  number  of  chromosomes  in  the  nucleus 
of  the  egg-cell  is  always  the  same.  The  chromosomes, 
as  we  have  seen,  are  the  loops  of  darkly  staining  matter 
in  the  cell,  which  are  exactly  halved  in  each  division 
of  it.i  Now  the  remarkable  discovery  has  been  made 
that  these  chromosomes  vary  in  number  with  different 
species,  but  that  in  every  egg  for  each  species  the  same 
number  of  them  is  to  be  counted.  Each  species  has  its 
specific  number  of  chromosomes  which  regularly  recurs 
in  the  division  of  all  of  its  cells,  and  from  which  no 
variations  are  known  to  occur.  For  instance  —  to 
mention  a  few  so  as  to  make  this  characteristic  stand 
clearly  out  —  the  Qgg  of  the  worm  Ascaris,  one  variety 
of  it,  has  two  chromosomes ;  in  the  egg  of  the  mouse 
the  number  is  twenty-four,  and  a  similar  number  char- 
acterizes also  the  trout  and  the  lily ;  in  he  egg  of  the 
grasshopper  the  number  is  twelve ;  in  the  ovum  of  the 
ox  sixteen ;  of  man  the  same  number,  or  possibly  more.^ 

1  See  Figure  2,  p.  34. 

2  Wilson,    The  Cell,  p.  67,  206. 


70  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

The  constancy  of  these  specific  loops  of  matter  within 
the  Q^g,  is  almost  startling  in  its  significance.  By  them 
for  every  species  the  adult  form  is  predetermined  long 
before  birth,  far  back  in  the  darkness  from  which  the 
light  of  life  shall  dawn.  The  direction  was  taken  very 
early  before  it  was  light.  A  specific,  unmistakable  sign 
of  tlie  way  in  which  life  is  to  go,  has  been  put  by  nature 
far  away  toward  the  beginnings  in  every  least  Qgg.  The 
sign  consists  of  a  dot  or  two,  more  or  less,  of  matter 
which  itself  is  more  definitely  constituted  than  any  mi- 
croscope can  disclose.  These  eggs,  by  virtue  of  the 
number  of  their  chromosomes,  are  so  many  specific 
words  of  life ;  and  each  of  them  is  spelled  always  with 
the  same  number  of  letters.  By  means  of  certain 
minute  particles  of  matter,  and  their  arrangement 
within  the  nucleus,  the  question  has  been  already  set- 
tled for  each  Qgg  into  what  it  shall  grow,  —  a  thread  of 
grass,  a  worm,  a  deer  in  the  forest,  a  bird  in  the  air,  — 
a  child  in  a  human  home. 

The  other  of  the  two  facts,  indicative  of  direction, 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  study  of  embryology,  will 
appear  as  follows.  After  development  has  started  in 
each  Q^g  according  to  its  kind,  as  determined  by  its 
specific  organization,  biology  can  trace  with  great  partic- 
ularity through  successive  stages  the  process  of  embry- 
onic growtli.  And  in  this  growth  likewise  everything  goes 
on  witli  precision,  and  along  definite  lines.  Observers 
have  succeeded  in  following  the  course  of  tlie  cells  in 
successive  divisions,  so  that  to  some  extent  they  can  trace 
the  lineage  of  the  original  cells  in  the  forming  tissues  and 
organs.     The  descent  of  the  several  organs  of  the   body 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     71 

from  original  layers  of  cells,  is  now  a  demonstrated  fact  of 
physiology.  It  is  unnecessary  to  describe  in  these  pages 
the  exact  and  interesting  details  which  are  given  in  full 
in  our  latest  text-books  of  physiology. 

Moreover,  comparative  pliysiology  seeks  to  demon- 
strate how  far  in  the  development  of  different  species 
these  lines  of  cell-growth  run  parallel,  and  where  they 
diverge  from  each  other  ;  and  it  is  a  well  ascertained  fact 
that  in  every  species,  either  of  plants  or  of  animals,  the 
direction  of  developing  life  which  has  once  been  taken, 
is  never  afterwards  missed ;  it  is  nowhere  abandoned  for 
another ;  the  right  ways  of  growth  for  that  specific  form 
are  followed  with  unerring  combinations  of  cells,  and 
with  sure  arrangements  and  co-ordination  of  the  develop- 
ing parts.  At  this  point  a  new  question  emerges,  and 
one  which  it  puzzles  our  investigators  to  answer.  How 
is  it  that  these  separate  cells,  which  we  have  discovered 
in  the  marvel  of  their  individual  existence,  have  come 
to  work  so  perfectly  together?  How  has  it  come  to 
pass  that  their  cleavages  are  adapted  to  each  other,  so 
that  they  multiply  and  grow  together,  in  the  unity  of  em- 
bryonic growth  ?  What  co-ordinates  them  ?  What  directs 
them  to  form  all  together  one  body  ?  Professor  Wilson 
rightly  observes,  "  There  is  at  present  no  biological 
question  of  greater  moment  than  the  means  by  which 
the  individual  cell-activities  are  co-ordinated  and  the 
organic  unity  of  the  body  maintained."  ^  If  this  ques- 
tion is  of  prime  importance  from  a  purely  biological 
position,  it  is  even  more  significant  from  the  philo- 
sophical point  of  view. 

1  Opus  cit.  p.  58. 


72  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

Keeping  to  our  method  of  asking  first  for  the  facts, 
we  inquire  what  is  kno\vn  as  to  the  mutual  relations  and 
physiological  action  of  these  many  cells  which  constitute 
a  single  body.  We  must  answer,  not  much  as  yet  is 
known.  The  cells  of  a  tissue  like  a  muscle,  for  instance, 
appear  to  be  separated  from  one  another  by  a  non-living 
intercellular  substance  —  the  cell  walls.  But  it  is  not 
certain  that  they  are  so  severed,  and  some  organic  connec- 
tions seem  to  have  been  traced  between  them.  Some 
observers  have  detected  fine  protoplasmic  threads,  or 
intercellular  bridges,  between  different  cells.  It  is  held 
that  some  organic  continuity  between  the  protoplasm  of 
the  cells,  although  not  true  of  all  the  cells  in  the  adult 
body,  is  more  probably  true  of  the  earher  embryonic 
stao-es.  One  of  our  American  workers  in  this  field 
asserts  that  she  has  actually  seen  in  the  egg  of  an  eclii- 
noderm  the  separated  cells  and  groups  of  cells  (hlasto- 
meres)  spinning  fine  filaments  of  protoplasm,  by  which 
direct  protoplasmic  continuity  is  established  between 
tliem  after  each  division.^  The  evidence,  which  is  accum- 
ulating in  tliis  direction,  may  lead  our  science  to  the  view 
that  a  living  body  is  practically  a  continuous  mass  of 
protoplasm,  and  that  the  individual  cells  of  it  are,  as 
Professor  Wilson  suggests,  "  local  centres  of  a  formative 
power  pervading  the  growing  mass  as  a  whole."  ^  But 
what  then  is  this  formative  power  of  the  organism  as 
one  living  wliole  ? 

There   are   some  biologists   Avho   are   inclined   to   lay 


1  Mrs.  E.  A.  Andrews,   The  Living  Substance,  Sup.  to  Jour,  of  Mor- 
phologt/,  V,  xii.  No.  2. 

2  Wilsou.  The  Cell,  n.  59. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING    CELLS     78 

increasing  stress  upon  this  influence  of  the  organism  as 
a  whole  over  the  parts  of  which  it  is  formed.^  Their 
position  is  defined  as  that  of  the  "  organism  standpoint."  ^ 
They  maintain  that  the  body  as  a  whole  has  some  deter- 
minative influence  over  the  growth  of  its  parts.  One 
characteristic  of  this  direction  of  the  individual  cells  by 
the  organism  as  a  whole,  if  this  be  the  true  biological 
view,  appears  to  be  especially  noteworthy,  —  the  man- 
ner, namely,  in  which  different  phases  of  the  embryolog- 
ical  development  are  timed  to  each  other.  The  timing 
of  things  together  is  always  an  interesting  aspect  of  our 
observation  of  life.  One  of  the  signal  indications  of 
providence  in  the  world  at  large  and  in  the  biographies 
of  men  is  afforded  by  just  the  right  timing  of  things,  so 
that  at  the  effective  moment  different  events  from 
widely  separated  quarters  are  seen  to  converge,  and  in- 
dependent forces  are  found  working  together  for  good. 
This  right  coincidence  of  things  for  us  is  often  re- 
markable in  our  individual  experiences.  How  often  it 
has  happened  that  gates,  at  which  we  may  have  long 
been  knockhig,  have  remained  closed,  as  though  there 
were  no  friendly  Presence  within  to  heed  our  impor- 
tunate need ;  and  then  suddenly,  when  we  have  been 
almost  ready  to  despair,  some  unexpected  conjunction 
of  circumstances  has  occurred,  a  door  of  opportunity  just 
at  the  right  moment  has  opened,  as  though  swung  by  un- 
seen hands,  and  we  have  entered  into  life.  We  say  that 
was  providential.  Now  far  back  near  life's  beginnings 
a  regular  and  remarkable  timing  together  of  different  pro- 

1  See  Child,  C.  M.,  Wood's  Holl,  Biol.  Lectures,  1899,  pp.  232  sq. 

2  Ibid,  p.  235. 


74  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

cesses  appears  in  the  development  of  the  egg-cell.  In  the 
great  world  the  hands  are  set  together  when  some  signal 
hour  of  history  is  striking;  and  in  this  miniature  world, 
at  the  critical  points  in  the  development  of  life  within 
the  microcosm,  the  hands  are  set  together,  the  time  is 
kept  right  to  the  very  second,  and  all  goes  well.  This 
phenomenon  of  tlie  mutually  adaptive  growth  of  cells  in 
the  time-rate  of  their  appearance,  may  be  observed  in 
several  ways  and  in  numerous  instances.  In  general, 
the  cells  multiply  and  take  up  their  related  positions  just 
as  fast  and  no  faster  than  they  are  needed  to  keep  the 
different  parts  of  the  embryo  of  a  chick  in  the  egg,  for 
instance,  in  right  relations  and  in  normal  size  and  co-ordi- 
nation. And,  in  particular,  special  differentiations  ap- 
pear at  the  times  when  the  organism  as  a  whole  has  need  of 
tliem.  One  of  the  workers  in  this  field,  who  has  noted 
the  relative  time  of  the  appearance  of  different  parts  in  the 
development  of  the  lower  annelids  and  moUusks  empha- 
sizes the  fact  that  "  the  division  of  a  single  cell  at  other 
than  the  proper  time  would  in  many  cases  disarrange 
the  whole  complex."  ^  He  remarks  that  "the  relative 
time  of  differentiation  of  various  organs,  and  especially 
of  the  early  larval  organs,  such  as  the  prototroch,  affords 
to  my  mind  a  most  striking  example  of  the  interrela- 
tion of  all  parts  of  the  developing  Qgg-''^  ^  He  observes 
that  in  each  case  the  differentiation  occurs  at  such  a 
time  that  tlie  parts,  which  he  has  been  studying,  shall 
be  prepared  to  perform  their  function  when  called  upon 
by  the   environment.     For     instance,  where   the   larva 

1  Child,  C.  IM.,  Wood's  Holl,  Biol.  Lectures,  1899,  p.  233. 

2  Ibid.  p.  242. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING    CELLS     75 

swims  at  a  very  early  stage,  the  cilia,  the  hairlike  oars, 
that  is,  by  which  it  swims  appear  correspondingly  early. 
But  in  other  cases  the  matter  from  which  these  cilia 
are  put  forth  (troclioUasts)  remains  apparently  at  rest, 
perhaps  for  a  long  while,  until,  some  time  before  they 
are  needed,  the  differentiation  takes  place.  He  says : 
"The  energy  of  the  Qgg  is  so  exactly  distributed 
that  none  is  wasted  in  the  development  of  organs 
before  they  are  needed."  "  The  different  time  relations 
in  the  division  of  the  various  cells  indicate  the  nicest 
adjustment  to  prevailing  conditions."  ^  It  is  no  wonder 
that  this  investigator  finds  in  such  timing  of  the  cells  to 
one  another  and  to  their  mutual  work,  evidence  of  the 
closest  relation  between  the  different  parts  of  the  organ- 
ism. But  the  fundamental  question  abides  :  How  have 
the  parts  become  so  timed?  What  is  the  mechanism 
involved  in  it?  And  what  Power  has  set  the  hands 
together  to  keep  true  time  on  this  microscopic  clock  ? 
We  glance  here  down  a  very  interesting  line  of  in- 
vestigation which  our  biologists  have  not  as  yet  followed 
through.  The  facts  already  observed,  however,  are  cer- 
tainly striking.  For  example,  a  recent  number  of  a 
botanical  magazine  contains  an  account  of  some  studies 
in  the  development  of  slime-molds,  which  are  organ- 
isms of  a  low  order.  These  researches  show  that  in  one 
species  examined  the  division  of  the  cell-substance  and 
the  cleavage  of  the  nucleus  are  not  brought  about 
simultaneously  by  the  same  apparatus,  and  are  in  their 
mechanism  independent.  Yet  the  two  processes  are 
so   timed    together    as   to   secure   a   constant    result.^ 

1  See  Child,  C.  M.,  Wood's  Roll,  Biol.  Lectures,  1899,  p.  243. 

2  See  Bot.  Gazette,  October,  1900,  pp.  225  sq. 


76  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

Again,  Mr.  Lillie  from  his  studies  of  the  lineage  of  cells 
in  one  of  the  fresh-water  bivalves  concludes  not  only 
that  the  direction  and  the  rate  of  cleavage  of  the  divi- 
sions of  cells  are  correlated,  but  also  that  the  sizes  of 
the  earlier-formed  cells  in  this  process  of  cell-division 
are  directly  related  to  the  future  adult  parts.^  Professor 
Wilson  also  is  so  impressed  with  the  precision  of  the 
successive  phenomena  in  the  cleavage  products  of  the 
developing  egg  that  he  writes  of  it  in  tliis  manner :  "  In 
this  regard  the  cleavage  of  the  ovum  often  goes  for- 
ward with  a  wonderful  clock-like  precision,  giving  the 
impression  of  a  strictly  ordered  series  in  which  every 
division  plays  a  definite  role  and  has  a  fixed  relation  to 
all  that  precedes  and  follows  it."  ^ 

From  this  general  sketch  of  the  processes  through 
which  life  increases,  acquires  distinct  organs,  and  is 
w^ondrously  built  up  and  adapted  to  specific  uses,  we 
proceed  to  consider  such  explanations  of  these  determin- 
ations of  nature  as  may  have  been  scientifically  sug- 
gested. 

A  first  biological  duty  is  to  find  out  as  much  as  can 
be  known  of  the  mechanism  of  life.  How  are  the  sev- 
eral parts  of  a  cell  or  an  organism  physically  put  together, 

1  Wood's  IIoll,  Biol.  Lectures,  1898,  pp.  43-66:  Morph.  Journal,  X. 
1895.  This  view  is  confirmed  also  by  Wilson  and  others.  The  Cell,  p. 
378. 

2  The  Cell,  p.  378.  See  also  Dr.  O.  L.  Zur  Strassen,  Factors  m  Mor- 
phogenesis, Jour.  Roji.  Mic.  Soc,  October,  1899,  p.  469.  Zool.  Cent.  B/att, 
vi.  1899,  pp.  400-402.  He  holds  that  the  really  determinative  factor  is  the 
fine  internal  mechanism.  "It  is  as  if  the  sedimentation  cell  had  a  guiding 
instinct."  This  is  illustrated  by  cases  where  the  blastomeres  move  spon- 
taneously but  definitely.  Tensions  and  pressures  are  insufficient  to  ex- 
plain the  changes  of  form  and  the  cytotropic  wanderings. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     77 

and  made  to  work  as  a  living  mechanism?  When 
however  we  search  the  scientific  magazines  for  an 
answer  to  this  question  we  shall  find  ourselves  often 
reminded  of  the  builders  of  Babel;  for  our  biologists 
speak  in  different  tongues,  inventing  many  and  uncouth 
names  for  the  same  things,  and  they  often  succeed  ad- 
mirably in  putting  one  another  to  confusion.  Never- 
theless, with  some  careful  attention  on  our  part,  the 
main  theories  which  they  have  to  suggest  may  be 
understood. 

As  one  theory,  the  effort  is  made  to  analyze  and  to  ac- 
count for  living  processes  by  applying  to  them  the  laws 
of  mathematical  physics.  Starting,  that  is,  with  certain 
living  molecules  as  the  elements  of  life's  problem,  we 
are  to  understand  their  transformations  upon  purely 
physical  principles,  by  means  of  mathematical  computa- 
tions of  stress  and  strain,  and  the  relative  position  of 
these  particles  in  space.  The  phenomena  of  life  in 
short  are  to  be  quantitatively  studied  as  a  complicated 
series  of  mathematical  equations. 

Another  main  direction  which  the  investigation  of 
vital  processes  pursues,  is  the  determination  of  their 
chemical  constitution  and  processes.  This  is  the  ap- 
pointed task  of  chemical  physiology.  Given  the  vital 
chemical  elements,  or  units,  we  seek  to  know  more  pre- 
cisely how  they  may  combine,  and  dissolve,  and  recom- 
bine,  and  what  may  come  forth  from  such  very  complex 
and  unstable  chemical  conditions.  These  two  re- 
searches, the  physical  and  the  chemical,  are  not  opposed, 
but  parallel  investigations ;  and  when  their  results  are 
summed  up  in  some  attempted  formula  for  life,  they 


78  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

yield  a  physico-chemical  description  of  it.  In  this  way 
we  seek  to  render  a  purely  mechanical  account  of  vital 
phenomena.  This  investigation  is  naturally  the  first 
one  that  should  be  made ;  and  biology  must  constantly 
return  to  it  in  order  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the 
facts.  It  is  doing  scientifically  what  the  child  does 
spontaneously,  when  it  pulls  a  flower  or  a  plaything  to 
pieces  to  see  how  it  is  made,  or  works.  Certainly  some 
progress  has  been  gained  in  this  mechanical  account  of 
vital  operations,  and  up  to  a  certain  point  the  conduct 
of  living  matter  may  be  brought  under  mechanical  con- 
ceptions; for  it  is  matter,  as  any  engine  is  material; 
and  it  is  composed  of  subtle  chemical  complexes  stored 
with  energ}',  as  any  working  machine  is  a  means  of 
transference  of  energy.  The  molecules  of  a  living  body 
remain  physical  quantities ;  or  perhaps  it  would  come 
nearer  our  exceedingly  abstract  physical  science  nowa- 
days to  speak  of  them  more  respectfully  as  so  many 
pliysical  ideas.  The  curious  experiments  which  biolo- 
gists have  made  in  shaking  eggs,  for  instance,  into 
pieces,  or  in  putting  them  in  different  geometric  posi- 
tions and  under  various  compressions,  or  even  in  setting 
the  mechanism  of  fertilization  going  and  keeping  it  up 
for  a  little  wliile  by  treating  some  eggs  with  special 
chemical  stimuli,  —  all  these  ingenious  manipulations 
of  the  vital  units  afford  some  definite  results,  and  serve 
to  throw  light  over  the  mechanical  side  of  life.  Some- 
thing indeed  looking  like  the  mechanism  of  cell-division 
has  been  produced  by  a  skilful  imitative  manipulation 
of  drops  of  oil,  and  the  venture  has  been  made  of  con- 
stmcting  wire   models  of   this  vital   mechanism.     We 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF    LIVING    CELLS     79 

may  expect  that  with  still  more  exact  minuteness  of 
measurement,  and  with  even  subtler  refinement  of 
chemical  research,  we  may  learn  more  of  the  mechanics 
of  the  infinitel}^  small.  But  it  is  another  question 
which  we  shall  take  up  later  on,  whether  mathematics, 
in  the  utmost  extension  of  its  physical  rule,  can  explain 
the  concrete  reality  of  the  whole  world,  or  of  a  single 
atom  of  it. 

Proceeding  from  such  knowledge  as  may  be  had  of 
the  physico-chemical  side  of  life,  biology  finds  the  larger 
question  opening  before  it :  How  has  the  mechanism 
of  life  been  worked  as  a  whole,  and  how  are  the  methods 
or  laws  of  its  working  to  be  formulated  ?  This  larger 
problem  is  not  scientific  in  the  stricter  sense ;  it  is 
partly  philosophical ;  for  it  is  an  endeavor  to  discover 
the  rationale  of  the  machine.  In  this  connection  it  is 
a  noteworthy  fact,  as  one  of  the  American  biologists, 
Professor  Osborn,  has  remarked  that  "  the  basis  of  our 
modern  methods  of  studying  the  evolution  problem  was 
established  not  by  the  early  naturalists,  nor  by  the 
speculative  writers,  but  by  the  philosophers.  Thc}^ 
alone  were  upon  the  main  track  of  modern  thought."  i 

We  must  turn,  accordingly,  for  further  light  upon 
the  facts  of  direction  in  nature  which  we  have  been 
surveying,  to  our  modern  scientific  philosophies  of  evo- 
lution. Since  Darwin,  however,  evolutionists  seem  to 
be  farther  and  farther  at  sea  in  their  theories  of  evolution. 
They  may  all  come  into  the  same  port  together  some 
day,  but  they  are  sailing  on  quite  different  courses  at 
the  present  hour.     Let  us  return   to  nature,  let  us  be 

1  As  quoted  in  the  Science  of  Life,  Thomson,  p.  216. 


80  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

sceptical  at  present  of  all  theories  and  explanations,  -- 
tliat  is  becoming  to-day  the  prevailing  cry  in  this  whole 
field  of  scientific  research.  The  workers  in  it  are  agreed 
in  the  first  article  of  the  evolutionary  creed,  viz.,  the 
doctrine  of  descent;  they  believe  with  scientific  una- 
nimity in  the  genetic  descent  of  all  living  creatures  as 
a  continuous  process  under  natural  laws.  But  they  are 
further  than  ever  from  agreement  as  to  the  factors  of 
evolution,  or  as  to  the  relative  parts  to  be  assigned  to 
different  factors  in  the  descent  of  life.  They  are  agreed 
generally  as  to  the  validity  of  Darwin's  great  generaliza- 
tion, the  law  of  natural  selection ;  they  are  not  at  all 
agreed  as  to  the  extent  of  the  reign  of  that  law,  or  its 
sufficiency  in  the  evolution  of  the  organic  kingdom. 
They  are  unanimous  in  their  general  conception  of 
evolution  as  the  method  by  whicli  the  unity  of  nature 
has  been  secured ;  they  differ  in  their  ideas  concerning 
the  forces  of  evolution,  known  or  unknown,  which  are 
the  efficient  causes  of  the  rich  manifoldness  of  the  world. 
If  we  seek  to  classify  these  divergent  views,  to  bring  into 
some  order  these  variant  theories,  three  conceptions  of 
the  evolutionary  method  may  be  mentioned  as  now 
pre-eminent. 

The  lirst  is  the  view  of  the  New  Darwinians.  They 
bring  to  the  front  the  principle  of  natural  selection  as 
the  chief  law  of  evolution.  The  principle  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  lit,  or  more  accurately  of  the  extermination 
of  tho  unfit,  is  so  well  known  that  we  need  not  delay  to 
illustrate  it.  Mr.  Darwin  perceived  and  demonstrated 
its  working  in  many  before  unobserved  and  unsuspected 
ways  ;  —  that  was  his  great  merit.     But  the  newer  Dar- 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     81 

winians  go  beyond  the  master  in  their  extension  and 
application  of  his  law.  They  hold  not  only  that  the 
struggle  of  existence  occurs  between  organisms  and 
their  surroundings,  but  also  that  a  conflict  takes  place 
between  their  parts.  They  carry  this  principle  of  con- 
flict and  survival  even  within  the  cell  and  among  the 
determinants  of  the  germ.  Natural  selection  is  to 
Weismann  the  all-sufficient  principle  —  the  skeleton 
key,  as  it  were,  which  fits  every  lock,  and  opens  any 
door  in  nature.  If  other  factors  enter,  they  play  a 
subordinate  part.  Everything,  according  to  this  view, 
from  the  initial  struggle  of  life  within  the  egg- cell  up 
to  the  most  specialized  and  perfected  animal  form,  has 
been  determined  under  the  sufficient  principle  of  natural 
selection.  One  might  roughly  describe,  without  intend- 
ing to  caricature,  this  philosophy  of  evolution  by  saying 
that  the  egg-cell  is  nature's  secret  caucus,  where  every- 
thing is  well  arranged  beforehand,  her  successful  can- 
didates picked  out,  and  her  subsequent  proceedings 
determined ;  and  that  therein  the  one  principle  of 
natural  selection  is  the  controlling  boss.  According  to 
tills  theory  only  germinal  variations,  or  modifications 
which  transpire  within  the  germinal  matter  of  a  body, 
are  perpetuated  and  selected ;  individual  modifications 
of  the  body  or  its  organs  count  for  nothing.  Bodily 
characteristics,  such  as  the  mutilation  of  a  part,  or  the 
acquired  skill  of  a  pianist's  fingers,  cannot  be  directly 
transmitted  to  the  offspring.  Everything  that  comes  to 
pass  on  nature's  field  of  life  has  first  to  go  through 
the  secret  caucus  within  the  germ-cell. 

This  theory  —  Weismann's   speculation  —  which   we 

6 


82  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

will  not  attempt  now  to  follow  further  into  its  abstruse 
details,  is  a  marvel  of  scientific  ingenuity.  As  one 
reads  it  in  Weismann's  own  writings  rather  than  in 
the  statements  which  others  have  given  of  it,  he  cannot 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  masterly  intellectual  pro- 
cess in  which  it  has  been  wrought  out;  but  it  is  too 
artificially  constructed  to  endure,  and  it  raises  at  many 
points  more  difficulties  than  it  removes.  Weismann 
began  his  great  work  with  the  perception  that  we  have 
no  theory  of  heredity,  and  he  sought  to  find  one.  The 
failure  of  the  theory  which  he  elaborated  to  command 
general  scientific  assent,  only  emphasizes  anew  his 
original  remark,  "We  have  no  theory  of  heredity." 

We  have,  however,  a  second  school  of  modern  philo- 
sophic observers  —  the  Neo-Lamarckians.  Lamarck  as- 
serted that  variations  in  organs  may  be  occasioned  by  use 
or  disuse,  as  a  muscle  may  be  increased  by  exercise,  or  a 
neck  possibly  lengthened  in  time  by  overmuch  stretch- 
ing; and  Lamarck  assumed  that  such  bodily  modifica- 
tions may  be  transmitted  to  offspring,  and  so  added  to 
the  stock  by  inheritance.  Weismann  challenged  that 
assumption.  But  the  Neo-Lamarckians  maintain  strictly 
the  inheritance  of  acquired  bodily  modifications,  and 
conse(iuently  they  are  disposed  to  relegate  the  principle 
of  natuial  selection  to  a  secondary  place,  while  they  make 
more  of  inherent  forces  of  organic  growth.  They  hold 
tliat  the  natural  growth  of  an  organism,  its  inherent 
growth-f(jrce,  tends  towards  vital  adaptations,  in  response 
to  outward  infiuences,  and  hence  to  progress  in  the  line 
of  definite  and  cumulative  variations.  Their  answer 
concerning  the  method  of  evolution,  broadly  speaking, 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     83 

would  be  this :  Progressive  evolution  has  taken  place 
through  increasing  structural  adaptations  to  the  en- 
vironment, according  to  the  inherent  or  self-adaptive 
powers  of  an  organism,  aided  perhaps  at  times  by 
natural  selection. 

Besides  these  two  conflicting  views  a  third  view,  or 
rather  a  third  class  of  views  is  coming"  into  bioloofical 
favor.  These  conceptions  may  be  regarded  as  mediat- 
ing theories  between  the  other  two.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Lloyd  Morgan  and  others,  that  although 
acquired  bodily  modifications  may  not  be  directly  trans- 
mitted and  inherited,  they  may  be  indirectly ;  modifica- 
tions in  the  body- cells  may  work  together  with  germinal 
variations  as  a  favorable  environment  for  them,  and  so 
in  many  instances  what  the  individual  acquires  in  his 
own  body  may  indirectly  at  least  count  for  something  in 
the  line  of  descent  for  his  offspring.^  Perhaps  the 
biological  philosophy,  or  conception  of  the  method  of 
evolution  now  most  in  favor  is  that  represented  by  the 
German,  Oscar  Hertwig,  and  others  who  hold  similar 
views :  evolution  is  due,  they  would  tell  us,  not  to  one, 
but  to  many  factors ;  its  law  is  not  simply  that  of  natu- 
ral selection ;  it  is  that,  and  other  laws  combined  with 
it.  Life  in  its  development  and  perfecting  is  a  response 
to  many  influences,  and  its  history  is  to  be  understood 
only  as  we  shall  discover  and  trace  the  co-operation 
of    many  factors,   external  and   internal,  in   its  evolu- 

1  See  among  the  most  recent  writers,  Prof.  J.  C.  Ewart,  The  Experi- 
mental Study  of  Variation,  Nature,  Sept.  12,  1901,  pp.  482  sq.  He  regards 
the  soma  as  the  immediate  environment  of  the  germ-cells,  and  thinks  that 
variations  of  the  germ-cells  may  result  from  the  direct  action  on  them  of 
their  immediate  environment. 


84  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

tion.i  We  are  by  no  means  sure  that  we  know  them  all. 
There  are  signs  here  and  there,  some  think,  of  an 
unknown  power  in  evolution.  The  advancing  line  of 
life  is  the  meeting-point  of  inner  and  outward  poten- 
cies. The  whole  problem  is  not  to  be  contained  in  a 
single  formula.  Life  in  its  manifold  versatility  cannot 
be  caught  in  the  simple  net  of  natural  selection  which 
the  newer  Darwinians  have  spread  for  it  in  vain. 

The  supreme  fact,  of  which  all  theories  seek  to  render 
some  account,  is  the  fact  of  direction  in  nature.  We 
are  concerned  in  this  connection  with  theories  of  evolu- 
tion so  far  as  they  may  help  us  understand  what  the 
method  of  direction  throughout  nature  has  been.  To 
some  extent  they  do  show  the  method,  or  how  nature 
has  led  life  along  its  upward  way;  viz.,  —  with  mechan- 
ical fidelity,  with  chemical  assiduity,  with  ceaseless 
discrimination  and  selection,  in  a  method  which  may 
perhaps  best  be  described,  broadly  speaking,  as  the 
continuous  adjustment  and  readjustment  of  inner  and 
outward  factors  and  conditions.  But  in  natural  science 
it  always  is,  as  it  so  often  is  with  us  in  climbing  a 
mountain ;  we  gain  one  summit  only  to  find  another 
still  higher  to  climb.  By  these  biological  theories  we 
do  not  gain  the  last  height  of  interpretation.  We  have 
confronting  us  the  further  and  immense  question : 
What  is  the  higliest  meaning  of  evolution  ?  What 
above  all  does  this  unmistakable  fact  of  direction 
throughout  the  organic  kingdom  mean? 

It  belongs  to  the  higher  biology  to  search  this  prob- 

1  See  Hertwig,  Biological  Problems  of  To-day,  p.  13G  :  Die  Zelle  und 
die   Getvebe,  B.  ii.  as.  73,  271  sg. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     85 

lem.  And  the  biologists  themselves  are  at  this  point 
our  best  witnesses.  As  thoughtful  observers  they  can- 
not rest  satisfied  with  a  merely  mechanical  explanation 
of  the  organic  realm.  The  laws  under  which  things 
move,  are  not  the  sovereign  power  in  this  or  any  king- 
dom. The  modes  of  working  are  not  the  causes  of  the 
work  done ;  as  the  mechanism  of  a  locomotive  is  not 
the  reason  why  it  moves,  and  at  certain  rates,  along  a 
defined  track,  to  a  predetermined  terminus.  Some- 
thing besides  the  locomotive  is  needed  to  explain  both 
the  locomotive  and  its  motions.  A  description  of  the 
methods  of  nature's  operations,  however  scientific,  is  not 
knowledge  of  the  energy  which  moves  through  all  things, 
and  holds  the  universe  to  its  course.  None  realize  this 
more  clearly  than  some  of  the  most  eminent  biological  in- 
vestigators. Oscar  Hertwig,  for  example,  who  is  one  of 
the  most  eminent  students  of  cell-life,  regards  biology 
as  a  province  in  which  mechanism  in  the  strict  sense  of 
the  physicist  is  in  a  very  limited  manner  applicable  ; 
and  in  most  cases  the  words  mechanics  and  mechanism, 
when  used  in  biology,  he  says,  ''have  no  real  con- 
tents "  ;  —  they  are  words  which  conceal  our  ignorance.^ 
"No  one,"  he  declares,  "can  tell  through  a  physical- 
chemical  analysis  why  at  this  place  or  that,  under  ten- 
sion and  pressure  certain  cells  form  a  little  beam  of 
bone,  why  here  cells  secrete  saliva-ferments,  there 
have  become  adapted  to  the  perception  of  light  or 
sound  or  smell,  or  arranged  together  for  an  eye,  or  a 
labyrinth  for  hearing  or  smelling.  We  can,  it  is  true, 
perceive  and  understand  that  everywhere  these  forma- 

1  Zeit-  und  Streitfragen  der  Biologic,  Heft  2,  ss.  18-19. 


8G  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

tions  have  relations  to  the  nature  which  surrounds  them, 
which  physically  and  chemically  can  be  recognized  and 
understood  as  necessary  ;  but  the  nature-proc6ss  itself, 
wliieh  has  brought  them  forth,  the  activity  of  the  cells, 
which  calls  all  these  purposive  formations  into  life,  is 
to  us  as  unintelligible  as  a  process  of  feeling  and 
thinking  which  plays  itself  out  in  the  apparatus  of  our 
senses  and  nerves."  ^ 

We  might  cite  similar  expressions  from  eminent 
biological  investigators,  if  only  for  the  purpose  of  a 
warning  against  the  superficially  smart  utterances  of 
some  students  who  will  speak  as  though  a  century's 
science  had  reduced  everything  vital  and  intelligent 
to  the  dead  level  of  a  mechanical  world ;  as  though 
the  wonder  of  the  ages  of  progressive  evolution, 
the  living  cell,  were  reduced  to  a  simple  mechanical 
contrivance  like  a  steam-engine ;  —  an  engine  of  life 
indeed,  which  not  only  goes,  but  which  lays  its  own 
track,  starts  itself,  and  stops  when  ready;  which  im- 
proves itself  also  as  it  goes  along,  and  produces  from 
itself  other  mechanisms  even  better  than  itself ;  for  that 
is  what  the  engine  in  an  organic  cell  will  do,  give  it 
time.  Further  citations  of  a  similar  tenor,  however, 
may  be  rendered  unnecessary  if  we  add  the  following 
declaration  of  so  pronounced  an  agnostic  as  Karl 
Pearson,  which  liits  the  biological  mechanics  fairly  on 
the  head  :  "  (Jlearly  those  who  say  mechanism  cannot 
explain  life  are  perfectly  correct,  but  then  mechanism 
does  not  explain  anything.  Those,  on  the  other  hand, 
wlio  say  mechanism  cannot  describe  life  are  going  far 

^  Die  Zdle  unci  die  Gewehe,  B.  ii.  s.  258. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING   CELLS     87 

beyond  what  is  justifiable  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowlecjge."  ^ 

Turning  again  from  the  authorities  to  the  facts  — 
nature  itself  being  always  the  final  authority  —  several 
recently  observed  instances  may  be  adduced  which  show 
the  insufficiency  of  any  merely  mechanical  theories  of 
the  living  world.  One  is  the  conduct  under  different 
kinds  of  stimulation  of  minute  unicellular  animals,  such 
as  inhabit  in  considerable  numbers  a  drop  of  water 
suitable  for  their  swarming.  It  has  been  held  by  some 
writers  that  the  movements  of  these  simplest  living 
things,  when  stimulated,  are  just  like  the  movements 
which  characterize  inorganic  substances  under  certain 
conditions ;  and  hence  by  identifying  similar  motions 
among  chemicals  and  among  Infusoria  it  was  supposed 
that  a  long  step  was  taken  toward  that  "analj^sis  of 
vital  processes  into  simple  chemical  and  physical  ones, 
which  is  deemed  by  many  the  final  goal  of  biological 
science."  But  under  closer  examination  this  apparent 
similarity  between  some  chemical  motions  and  simple 
physiological  movements  has  resolved  itself  into  real 
diiferences.  When  the  investigations  were  carried  out 
more  thoroughly,  it  was  observed  that  unicellular 
organisms  do  not  behave  as  chemical  particles  do. 
The  organism  is  discovered  to  have  its  own  peculiar 
way  of  reacting  to  stimulus.  We  know  that  it  is  so  in 
the  case  of  a  man  who  has  taken  a  drop  too  much :  and 
we  know  now  also  that  organic  reactions  to  stimulation 
begin  with  the  very  cells,  and  in  their  own  peculiar, 
and  not  merely  chemical  way.     For  thorough  investiga- 

1  Gru  miliar  of  Science,  p.  344.  * 


88  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

tion  has  shown  that  the  reaction  of  these  animalcules 
is  distinctly  physiological,  and  not  merely  physical; 
organic,  and  not  purely  chemical.  If  one  of  these 
unicellular  bodies  meets  with  anything  that  acts  as  a 
stimulus  upon  it,  it  will  respond  uniformly  according  to 
its  own  nature  first  by  swimming  backwards,  then  by 
swimming  always  towards  the  same  side,  and  then  by 
swimming  forward  again.  Only,  in  some  cases,  when  it 
is  strongly  stimulated  directly  from  behind,  it  will 
respond  according  to  its  infinitesimal  degree  of  in- 
telligence, shall  we  say?  by  swimming  straight  ahead 
somewhat  faster.^  Now  these  motions  are  not  purely 
physical  ones,  like  that  of  particles  of  steel  drawn 
towards  a  magnet.  They  do  not  resemble  the  manner 
of  any  known  chemical  reactions.  They  have  their 
own  character.  Life  in  its  first  cells  has  its  proper 
organic  responses  to  make.  Internal  factors  are  oper- 
ative in  simplest  organic  reactions.  "The  organism," 
we  are  told  by  the  observer,  "  reacts  as  an  individual, 
not  as  a  substance."  ^ 

A  different  instance,  which  discloses  the  same  principle 
of  organic  rather  than  mechanical  response,  is  furnished 
by  Professor  Wilson.  We  shall  have  to  be  somewhat 
technical  in  the  description  of  it,  but  as  it  is  one  of 
those  small  things  in  nature  easily  escaping  observation, 
which  mean  very  much,  we  may  take  some  pains  to 
understand  it.  When  cells  divide  and  multiply,  the 
spindles  in  tliem  sometimes  arrange  themselves  some- 

1  Jennings,  II.  S.,  "  Behaviour  of  Unicellular  Organisms,"  Wood's  Holl, 
Biol.  Lfcts.  1 899,  pp.  93  sq. 
'^Ihid.  p.  111. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING    CELLS     89 

what  in  the  form  of  a  spiral ;  this  is  spoken  of  in  the 
books  as  spiral  cleavage.  Now  there  is  a  well  known 
mechanical  principle,  which  would  cause  these  dividing 
cells  to  be  arranged  one  after  another  with  the  least 
possible  contact  of  their  surfaces,  very  much  as  a  suc- 
cession of  soap  bubbles  will  just  touch  each  other.  To 
some  extent  this  mechanical  principle  has  been  observed 
among  multiplying  cells.  But  in  some  instances  of 
spiral  cleavage  this  mechanical  order  of  arrangement 
becomes  subordinated  to  some  quite  different  principle. 
Thus  in  the  development  of  annelids  and  mollusks, 
where  at  first  the  cells  are  divided  and  multiplied  in  a 
spiral,  that  arrangement  shortly  is  changed  for  a  very 
different  form ;  it  gives  way,  says  Professor  Wilson, 
*'  more  or  less  completely  to  a  bilateral  type  of  division 
in  which  the  rule  of  minimum  surface  contact  is  often 
violated."  That  is,  we  see  in  such  instances  a  mechan- 
ical law  by  some  means  suspended  in  the  development 
of  the  Qggy  and  some  other  principle  intervenes  and 
becomes  controlling.  Or,  to  continue  quoting  Professor 
Wilson :  "  We  see  here  a  tendency  operating  directly 
against,  and  finally  overcoming,  the  mechanical  factor 
which  predominates  in  the  earlier  stages ;  and  in  some 
cases,  e.  g.  in  the  Qgg  of  Clavelina  and  other  tunicates, 
this  tendency  predominates  from  the  beginning."  ^ 
Another  American  biologist  has  called  attention  to 
a  curious  fact  of  behavior  within  the  Qgg  of  a  fresh- 
water bivalve,  which  presents  a  similar  puzzle  to  a 
purely  mechanical  theory  of  vital  movements.  Study- 
ing with  minutest  particularity  the  division  of  cells  and 

1  Opus  cit.  p.  369. 


90  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

the  growth  of  the  body  in  this  specimen,  he  noticed 
that  the  nucleus  of  the  Qgg  wandered  through  the  cyto- 
plasm (the  substance  of  the  Qgg)  from  one  side  to  the 
other,  from  the  front  to  the  back,  stopping  at  various 
stations,  and  giving  off  a  cell  at  each  one.  Finally  the 
nucleus  stopped  at  the  centre  of  the  cell,  and  a  perfectly 
bilateral  spindle  was  formed.  ''Why,"  he  asks,  "does 
it  stop  there?  Is  it  because  its  environment  has 
chano-ed?  If  so,  the  change  is  such  as  to  elude  the 
closest  scrutiny."  His  answer  to  this  puzzle  of  ap- 
parently definite,  constructive  movement  within  the 
cell  is  this :  "  In  fact  the  cell  is  a  builder  which  lays 
one  stone  here,  another  there,  each  of  which  is  placed 
with  reference  to  future  development."  ^ 

In  connection  with  these  facts  one  general  observa- 
tion may  be  added.  When  we  overtake  natural  selec- 
tion in  its  operation,  we  do  not  then  come  upon  the  fact 
of  direction  for  the  first  time  within  our  knowledge. 
Direction  is  prior  in  nature  to  selection.  Natural  selec- 
tion marks  a  second,  not  the  first  point  where  science 
may  lay  hold  of  nature.  For  the  fact  of  some  determi- 
nation of  things  exists  before  the  fact  of  any  selection 
between  them.  Before  ever  natural  selection  could 
begin  to  work,  some  fixed  points  had  to  be  gained  from 
which  it  might  work.  Selection  lies  in  nature  between 
units  at  least  of  living  matter  which  already  are  deter- 
minate. I>efore  the  fitness  of  an  organism  to  survive 
can  l)e  tested,  there  must  be  given  its  capacity  to  live  at 
all.     A    flowing  stream  makes  no  selection  among  tlie 

i  Lillie,  F.  R., "  The  Em])ryoloi^y  of  tlie  Uniouidae,"  Journal  of  Morphol- 
ogy, X,  1895,  p.  40. 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING    CELLS     91 

breaking  bubbles  on  its  surface.  Specific  forms  in  the 
organic  realm  must  appear  and  be  held  firm  long  enough 
to  afford  a  basis  for  favorable  variations.  Variation  is 
from  something  already  formed  to  something  better  or 
j)erhaps  worse  formed.  The  biological  problem  goes 
deeper  than  a  guess  at  the  possible  causes  of  variations. 
How  has  it  come  to  pass  that  organic  forms  have  been 
held  firm  and  true  long  enough  to  acquire  an  adaptive 
variation  ?  Some  conserving  force,  some  fixing  agency, 
so  to  speak,  must  be  presupposed  to  account  for  the  sta- 
bility of  the  primal  cell,  for  the  definite  number  of  chro- 
mosomes, as  well  as  for  the  structural  relations  of  the 
different  parts  of  an  organic  growth  ;  and  some  deter- 
mining factor  must  be  assumed  at  the  start,  whatever 
we  may  suppose  its  natiu'e  to  have  been.  We  cannot, 
in  a  word,  have  anywhere  a  definitely  moulded  form 
witliout  some  moulding,  whether  there  appears  a  mould- 
ing hand  or  not.  Nature's  first  problem  is  not  merely  a 
problem  of  forces ;  it  is  a  problem  of  forms ;  fitness 
among  these  may  be  her  next  problem,  the  question  of 
her  advance  ;  and  selection  doubtless  has  had  an  im- 
portant role  to  play  in  explaining  the  preservation  of  fit 
forms ;  but  it  cannot  explain  either  the  forms  or  their 
fitness.  In  other  words,  even  if  evolution  may  explain 
everything  else,  it  cannot  explain  itself. 

We  pause  a  moment  at  this  point  to  determine  just 
how  far  in  our  inquiry  into  the  problem  of  direction  in 
nature  we  have  thus  far  gone.  We  began  by  observing 
various  phenomena  which  show  the  fact  of  some  direc- 
tion in  the  evolution  of  the  worlds.     We  learn  what  we 


92  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

may  concerning  the  meclianism  by  means  of  which  life 
runs  along  its  advancing  way.  We  have  glanced  at 
prevalent  scientific  theories  for  some  account  of  the 
mode  of  the  development  of  life ;  and  we  may  gain  par- 
tially true  conceptions  of  the  working  methods  of  evo- 
lution. But  we  have  further  seen  that  no  scientific 
theory  of  the  course  of  nature  affords  any  rational  ex- 
planation of  it.  Why  nature  has  been  so  ordered,  what 
power  works  through  its  continuous  processes,  how  its 
end  is  predetermined,  —  this  is  not  contained  in  any 
formula  for  evolution  which  science  has  to  offer.  The 
fact  of  direction  we  know ;  the  mechanism  and  mode  of 
it  to  some  extent  we  think  that  we  know ;  but  the  sig- 
nificance of  it,  and  the  real  interpretation  of  it,  —  that 
is  another  question.  Yet  it  is  the  question  put  directly 
to  our  human  reason  by  the  facts  observed.  For  the 
beginnings  of  this  process  of  development  our  biolo- 
gists have  to  look  farther  than  they  can  peer  through 
their  microscopes;  for  the  energy  which  carries  it  on 
they  have  to  seek  beyond  their  mathematical  equations 
of  its  workings;  for  the  continuity  and  constancy  of 
its  course,  for  the  unity  underlying  it  all,  they  have  to 
venture  out  into  the  presence  of  some  power  which  can- 
not be  subjected  to  their  experiments.  The  profounder 
our  knowledge  of  the  process  of  nature  the  greater  be- 
comes the  demand  for  our  understanding  of  it  of  some 
draft  upon  tlic  unseen  and  the  eternal.  Evolutionary 
pliilosophy  must  honor  that  draft. 

Before  advancing  to  the  argument,  which  may  be 
drawn  from  the  great  nature-process,  we  would  recall 
summarily  the  facts   which  we  have  successively  ob- 


DIRECTION  IN  HISTORY  OF  LIVING    CELLS     93 

served,  that  we  may  realize  the  momentum  of  them  in 
their  totality.  First  in  our  inquiry  we  met  the  fact  of 
direction  in  inorganic  evolution.  That  reached  its  end, 
and  passed  its  energy  up  into  the  organic  kingdom. 
Next  we  met  at  the  beginning  of  the  organic  evolution 
the  organized  cell ;  this  organic  unit,  where  our  science 
can  first  lay  hold  of  it,  is  known  to  be  something  already 
definitely  formed.  It  is  a  structure  fitted  for  its  func- 
tion. The  cell  is  something  called  and  chosen  for  its 
specific  task.  Then  we  saw  how  nature  proceeded  to 
use  these  living  cells  in  the  development  of  the  plant 
and  animal  world;  as  a  happy  thought  in  nature  the 
principle  of  division  of  labor  and  mutual  service  was 
taken  up  and  has  been  followed  out  through  associa- 
tions, colonies,  and  mutually  adapted  organs,  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  body  in  the  higher  animals  and  man. 
Then  turning  back  again  to  the  cell,  searching  anew  for 
the  secret  of  this  direction  and  movement  of  life  towards 
the  perfection  of  organization,  we  observed  the  intricate 
process  of  its  division  and  multiplication ;  —  which  pro- 
cess, if  it  did  not  follow  a  purpose,  certainly  came  to 
some  choice  results.  We  perceived  the  remarkable  pro- 
vision which  exists  for  the  equal  division  of  paternal 
and  maternal  elements,  and  for  the  exact  specific  devel- 
opment of  each  egg.  Then  we  were  surprised  by  the 
appearance  of  still  further  significant  facts  in  the  life- 
history  of  the  cells ;  such  as  the  fact  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  timing  together  and  mutual  adaptation  of  the 
parts  and  processes  of  the  development  of  the  embryo, 
and  the  subordination  also  of  individual  cells  to  the  use 
of  the  whole  organism.     We  gained  thus  a  new  point  of 


94  THROUGH   SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

view  from  consideration  of  the  organism  standpoint,  or 
the  control  of  the  individual  parts  by  the  organism  as  a 
whole.  Furthermore  all  these  elements  and  problems 
of  direction  in  nature  which  are  striking  enough  in  the 
original  egg-cell,  are  multif)lied,  diversified,  gathered 
into  one  stupendous  fact  of  organic  direction  in  the 
ascent  of  life,  as  it  reaches  its  latest  and  highest  achieve- 
ments of  power,  beauty,  and  harmony,  of  instinct,  self- 
conscious  thought,  and  love.  In  the  simplest  statement 
of  the  facts  we  have  presented  to  us  something  which 
seems  to  transcend  a  merely  mathematical  and  mechan- 
ical problem,  and  which  looks  very  much  on  the  face  of 
it  like  an  intellectual  achievement. 


CHAPTER   V 

INTELLIGENT    CHARACTER   OF    DIRECTION    IN     NATURE 

The  question  which  now  fairly  confronts  us,  and 
which  no  thoughtful  observer  of  nature  would  wish  to 
evade,  is  this :  What  is  the  character  of  the  supreme 
fact  of  direction  in  nature  ? 

In  entering  upon  this  further  inquiry  we  should  recall 
the  principles  of  natural  revelation  which  were  discussed 
in  the  second  chapter.  We  shall  need  to  apply  them 
from  this  point  on  repeatedly  in  our  further  study  of 
evolution. 

We  have  observed  that  nature's  revelation  comes  from 
within,  shining  out  of  her  own  processes,  and  with 
increasing  self-luminousness  as  the  evolution  grows.  We 
shall  accordingly  seek  to  discern  the  signs  of  character 
in  nature  which  appear  with  the  development  of  life, 
and  perceive  how  they  become  more  clear  and  are  more 
impressive  as  the  revelation  through  evolution  grows. 

We  point  first  to  the  sign  of  Orderliness. 

As  our  previous  survey  of  the  facts  has  shown,  this 
sign  is  written  everywhere  in  the  history  of  life.  It  is  a 
general  intellectual  mark  upon  nature  as  a  whole.  It 
does  not  fail,  it  is  not  blurred  in  the  least,  when  we  read 
it  microscopically.     It  is  an  intellectual  mark  etched 

95 


96  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

upon  the  minutest  structure,  and  to  be  noticed  in  the 
earliest  functional  responses  of  the  organic  world.  It  is 
a  sign  of  some  good  ordering;  for  in  nature,  as  in  a 
household,  orderliness  is  a  characteristic  of  good  house- 
keeping ;  and  it  is  something  to  be  recognized  and  under- 
stood over  and  above  the  furnishings  of  the  house,  which 
may  render  possible  some  orderly  housekeeping.  The 
furniture  is  the  means,  the  servants  are  the  agents,  but 
not  in  them  lies  the  reason  of  the  household's  order. 
Nature  shows  in  every  room,  from  basement  to  upper 
chamber,  and  even  in  its  most  secret  closets,  clean, 
economic,  and  orderly  housekeeping.  The  fact  of  order- 
liness is  a  royal  sign,  which  the  triumphs  of  the  sciences 
of  the  nineteenth  century  hand  over  to  the  philosophy 
of  our  time  to  read  and  to  understand. 

Let  us  suppose  that  so  many  pins,  for  example,  are 
found  in  a  paper  arranged  in  rows.  The  fact  that  they 
are  of  uniform  size  renders  it  mechanically  possible  to 
put  them  up  in  orderly  rows ;  but  it  does  not  explain 
the  fact  that  they  are  so  put  together  in  exact  rows. 
The  orderliness  of  their  arrangement  is  a  characteristic 
of  a  paper  of  pins  in  addition  to  their  properties  as  pins 
which  have  equal  lengths,  and  each  of  them  a  definite 
point  and  a  head  of  the  same  size  as  the  others.  We 
are  not  reasoning  merely  from  the  fact,  which  Maxwell 
observed,  that  the  atoms,  like  so  many  pins,  have  every 
appearance  of  being  manufactured  articles.  Grant 
that  evolution  may  have  been  the  method  of  their 
manufacture.  We  are  noticing  the  additional  fact  of 
tlieir  orderly  arrangement.  The  protoplasmic  order,  as 
it  has  been  called,  is  an  arrangement  of  molecules  and  a 


CHARACTER    OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE       97 

dispositiou  of  energies  which  is  to  be  considered  as 
something  over  and  above  the  properties  of  matter  which 
render  possible  such  arrangements  and  dispositions  of  it 
in  organic  structures  for  vital  uses. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  illustration  from  a  single  paper 
of  similar  pins  is  not  sufficient.  We  have  to  do  in 
nature  not  with  order  of  one  kind  only,  but  with  several 
kinds  of  order.  We  should  compare  it  not  to  one  paper 
of  pins  of  the  same  size,  but  to  a  whole  work-basket,  all 
arranged  in  good  order.  Nature  is  not  a  slovenly  work- 
basket.  We  may  enumerate  several  distinct  orders, 
which  are  all  put  up  together,  as  it  were,  in  nature's  one 
orderliness. 

1.  The  physical  order.  In  it  are  given  the  atoms  and 
their  geometric  relations  together  with  the  energy  repre- 
sented by  them.  This  is  the  original  elementary  order  ; 
each  element  is  an  appearance  of  molecules  of  the  same 
kind. 

2.  The  chemical  order.  The  atoms  are  capable  of 
forming  combinations  more  or  less  stable  with  one 
another.  Their  relations  and  mutual  behavior  yield 
the  laws   of  chemistry. 

3.  The  protoplasmic  order.  We  find  certain  highly 
complex  molecules,  as  it  is  supposed,  combining  and 
acting  together  in  a  new  way  which  is  called  vital. 
The  movements  of  a  bit  of  protoplasm  reveal  the  new 
order  of  life. 

4.  Still  further,  the  order  of  development,  or  the 
phylogenetic  order.  This  is  included  partly  in  the 
previous  order,  yet  it  presents  phenomena  which  so  far 
transcend  the  initial  protoplasmic  order  that  it  may  be 

7 


98  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

classified  by  itself.  It  is  the  order  of  the  development 
and  differentiation  of  living  matter  in  the  succession  of 
organic  forms.  It  discloses  as  its  distinctive  character- 
istics, besides  the  initial  properties  of  protoplasm, 
such  phenomena  as  variation  and  heredity,  adaptation 
and  selection,  and  the  subordination  of  the  individual 
cells   to   the  organism   as  a  whole,  and  its  functions. 

5.  Coming  to  revelation  through  the  latter  orders 
with  increasing  self-evidence  is  a  still  higher,  the 
sentient  order,  the  order  of  animal  intelligence.  Life 
feels  itself.     It  becomes  more  or  less  conscious  life. 

6.  Above  this  and  crowning  the  preceding  orders, 
rooted  and  grounded  in  all  below,  yet  transcending  all, 
is  the  order  of  rational  life, —  life  interpretative  of  itself. 
Beyond  the  life  feeling  itself  is  the  life  reasoning  about 
itself ;  personal  life  is  the  order  of  self -interpretative 
life ;  not  merely  self-conscious,  but  self-interpretative 
hfe. 

Such  are  the  several  orders,  each  having  its  own 
quality,  each  of  its  own  distinctive  kind,  which  never- 
tlieless  are  all  bound  together  in  nature's  one  orderly 
[)rocess.  Now  our  immediate  point  is,  that  orderliness, 
comprehending  as  it  does  so  much  ordering,  and  of  so 
many  successions  and  kinds  of  things,  is  a  great  mark 
of  character,  a  sign  written  large  on  nature  for  us  to 
read  and  to  be  guided  by.  We  must  take  in  tlie  whole 
series  of  orders  in  nature,  and  consider  their  significance 
together  as  one  well-ordered  wliole,  if  we  would  inter- 
pret ai'iirlit  the  facts  of  direction  in  the  process  of  nature.^ 

^  Seo  J.  M(jrris,  A  New  Natural  T/ieology,  for  an  able  critical  presenta- 
tion (;f  the  theistic  ars^uinont  from  tlie  several  orders  of  evolution. 


CHARACTER    OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE       99 

It  is  impossible  for  an  open-eyed  philosophy,  it  is  not 
possible  for  a  science  which  is  not  color-blind,  to  run 
heedlessly  by  this  sign  of  orderliness  which  is  held  aloft 
over  the  track  of  evolution.  It  is  flung  out  as  a  sign  to 
be  heeded  by  any  good  philosophic  engineer,  and  to  pass 
it  by  may  lead  a  system  of  biology  to  speedy  destruction. 

Moreover,  the  significance  of  orderliness  in  evolution 
is  multiplied  and  emphasized  by  the  repetition  of  this 
characteristic  in  each  new,  successive  advance  of  evolu- 
tion. If  it  is  not  a  sign  of  some  purpose,  then  we  must 
suppose  that  after  the  fortuitous  meeting  of  atoms  in 
the  primal  molecules  must  have  followed  fortuitously 
the  concourse  of  the  molecules  in  a  hydrocarbonate,  a 
proteid,  an  amoeba ;  and  still  further  that  these  must 
have  fortuitously  grown  into  the  combinations  of  the 
body  of  an  ascidian,  a  mammal,  or  a  man.  But  with 
the  rise  of  successive  orders  the  possibility  of  their  com- 
ing fortuitously  to  be,  is  decreased  numerically  by  an 
indefinite  power  of  the  known  quantities  in  nature's 
equation.  The  argument  against  a  chance  happening 
of  orderliness  increases  towards  the  infinite  with  the 
advent  of  the  most  highly  organized  forms  of  life ;  it 
breaks  down  utterly  before  the  supreme  fact  of  the  one 
harmonized  evolution  of  all  the  orders  of  nature. 

Suppose  that  from  an  indefinite  number  of  ink  spots 
twenty-six  letters  of  an  alphabet  had  in  the  course  of 
time  accidentally  occurred.  Grant  that  to  be  conceivable, 
although  it  may  require  a  lively  scientific  imagination 
to  conceive  of  its  possibility.  We  naturally  might  feel 
concerning  those  formed  letters  of  the  alphabet  as 
Clerk  Maxwell  thought  with  regard  to  the  atoms,  that 


100  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

they  have  every  appearance  of   manufactured  articles. 
Nevertheless,   waiving  the  initial  difhculty  as    to   the 
formation  of  the  original  letters,  imagine  them    to    be 
fortuitous  products,  without  sign  of  intelligence  upon 
them.     But  this  would  be  only  the  beginning  of  diffi- 
culties.    This  were  only  the  first  shock  to  our  power  of 
imagination.     We  come  across  on  nature's  first  page  an 
arrangement  of  several  letters  in  a  word  —  a  monosyllable 
it  may  be  —  yet  a  word  to  which  definite  meaning  be- 
longs.    The  arrangement  of  the  letters  in  the  formed 
word  is  a  new  fact  to  be  explained.     We  find  this  ele- 
mentary word  turning  up  here  and  there  and  everywhere 
in  the  course  of  nature  :  and  wherever  it  occurs,  it  is 
always  spelled  in   the   same   way.     Its   letters  —  those 
chromosomes  in  the  cell  —  are  always  the  same  in  each 
specific  word  of  life.     But  this  is  only  the  first  surprise. 
In  the  opening  sentences  of  the  book  of  life  we  read 
other  words,  formed  of  similar  letters,  longer  than  mono- 
syllables and  more   complex;    and   they,  likewise,  are 
always  spelled  truly,  in  the  same  definite  way,  each  with 
its  proper  number  of  letters  and  syllables,  of  chromo- 
somes and  cells.     We  have  before  us  the  mystery  of 
many  and  regularly  recurring  words.     And  this  opens  up 
a  further  wonder.     We  turn  the  pages    and   perceive 
that  these  words  of  life  are  not  single  and  detached : 
behold !  they  arrange  themselves  in  certain  relations  to 
each  other  for  which  they  seem  to  be  fitted.     We  dis- 
cover upon  closer  inspection   that   they   are   mutually 
adapted  for  such  arrangement^  and  that  when  they  have 
so  fallen  together,  a  new  order  appears  —  a  sentence  is 
composed.     And  still  further,  sentence  follows  sentence, 


CHARACTER   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     101 

each  orderly  and  complete  in  itself,  and  all  having  ap- 
parently some  connection  with  one  another.  For  with 
the  single  sentence,  having  its  specific  significance, 
the  wonder  does  not  end.  The  separate  sentences  fall 
into  groups.  We  mark  the  division  and  succession  of 
paragraphs  on  nature's  page.  One  leads  up  to  the  next. 
Each  part  takes  meaning  from  the  preceding,  and  car- 
ries it  on  to  the  following  pages.  We  find  that  we  can 
understand  no  sentence  aright,  if  we  read  it  out  of  its 
connection.  Still  the  wonder  grows ;  for  these  larger 
paragraphs  seem  to  belong  to  some  great  argument, 
which  runs  through  all  the  sentences  and  words,  and  to 
constitute  even  beyond  our  understanding  some  vast 
system  of  thought.  Our  knowledge  may  end  with  the 
paragraphs  and  chapters  which  nature  thus  far  has  pub- 
lished ;  we  have  by  no  means  as  yet  read  to  the  end  the 
whole  history  of  the  creation ;  we  have  begun  to  know, 
we  have  not  yet  learned  all  of  the  poem  of  the  divine 
ideas,  as  Saint  Augustine  finely  called  the  creation.  We 
have  not  yet  lived  through  to  the  end  of  Nature's  great 
argument  and  epic  of  divinity.  But  though  we  know 
in  part,  we  know ;  though  we  have  mastered  but  a  few 
paragraphs,  they  have  intelligible,  although  it  be  still 
broken  meanings  to  us.  And  the  meanings  we  have 
spelled  out  and  put  together,  are  enough  to  show  that 
they  all,  with  the  things  not  yet  clearly  understood, 
belong  together  to  one  book  of  life  :  these  parts  which 
we  know,  have  their  place  and  time  and  meaning  in  the 
one  order  of  intelligence  which  is  vaster  than  we  know.^ 

1  So  Brooks  argues  that  mechanism  does  not  touch  the  question  as  to 
why  nature  is  orderly.     The  opposite  of  order  is  not  freedom  but  the 


102  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

A  similar  but  distinct  sign  of  nature  to  be  interpreted 
is  the  sign  of  fitness. 

The  quality  of  fitness,  however  it  may  have  origi- 
nated, is  a  mark  of  character  in  nature ;  that  is, 
it  signifies  something.  Notice  especially  that  in  the 
mutual  fitness  of  organic  forms  Ave  have  to  do  not 
merely  with  a  symmetrical  arrangement  of  molecules  as 
in  a  crystal ;  there  is  presented  to  us  for  our  rational 
interpretation  of  it  the  striking  fact  that  in  an  organ- 
ism certain  parts  are  fitted  and  timed  to  each  other  for 
mutual  use  and  the  benefit  of  the  organism  as  a  whole, 
which  taken  together  they  compose.  The  fitness  is  a 
characteristic  of  the  organism  as  a  whole,  and  it  is  for 
the  service  of  the  organism  as  one  living  thing.  There 
is  given  in  it  the  new  fact  in  nature  of  the  adaptation  of 
one  part  to  another  for  some  further  use.  Take  as  an 
instance  a  union  of  living  cells,  like  the  hydra^  where, 
as  we  have  already  noticed,  the  social  principle  of  the 
division  of  labor  makes  one  of  its  earliest  appearances 
in  nature's  economy.  It  is  a  combination  of  cells,  which 
are  still  so  independent  that  if  a  hydra  be  cut  in  two, 
either  half  may  grow  into  a  complete  hydra.  Indeed 
in  some  recent  experiments  a  whole  hydra  has  been 
grown  from  a  single  tentacle.  But  these  cells  have  be- 
gun to  act  in  concert,  and  to  assume  specific  functions, 
becoming  lielpful  to  each  other  in  a  common  life,  forming 

disorderly ;  order  is  not  necessity,  i.  e.,  as  opposed  to  free  intelligence.  See 
Foundalions  of  Zoolorjy.  This  remark  from  a  naturalist  is  worth  quoting, 
"  Order  is  not  an  explanation  of  anything,  but  something  that  itself  calls 
for  explanation."  Ibid.  p.  287.  See  also  Romanes  :  "  Physical  causation 
cannot  be  made  to  supply  its  own  explanation."  Thoughts  on  Religion, 
pp.  70-7.0. 


CHARACTER   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     103 

"  a  single  multicellular  unit."  ^  We  may  recall  without 
repeating  the  facts,  how  this  vital  principle  of  fitting 
parts  together  for  mutual  service  has  grown  and  been 
strengthened,  and  diversified,  and  how  it  has  in  time 
brought  forth  fruits  of  life  of  the  richest  value.  It  is 
an  idea  which  thus  grows  and  bears  the  fruit  of  life. 
It  is  the  intelligible  principle  of  organization  for  use. 
It  is  the  moral  idea  of  mutual  service.  If  nature's  first 
thought  is  order,  her  second  thought  is  mutual  service. 

This  sign  likewise  —  let  us  emphasize  it  —  is  some- 
thing to  be  interpreted  by  us  over  and  above  the  physi- 
cal properties  of  life,  or  au}^  mechanical  methods  of  it, 
through  which  this  increasing  fitness  may  have  been 
secured.  It  is  a  quality  of  evolution  apart  from  its 
mechanics.  The  question  for  biological  philosophy  is 
not  merely,  how  has  it  been  wrought,  but  Avhat  does 
it  mean  ?  And  its  sis^nificance  becomes  more  command- 
inof  as  this  sio^n  of  fitness  is  held  aloft,  and  borne  to  the 
front  in  the  battle  and  the  triumph  of  life.  It  is  one 
of  nature's  royal  banners  to  be  displayed  because  of  the 
truth. 

A  third,  and  most  important  characteristic  of  the 
principle  of  natural  direction  is  the  sign  of  increasing 
vital  value. 

This  mark  of  evolution  has  not  thus  far  been  clearly 
enough  recognized  by  biological  science.  It  may  be 
definitely  formulated  as  the  law  of  increase  of  vital 
value  in  evolution.  It  will  be  found  to  be  a  sign  pos- 
sessing great  interpretative  suggestiveness. 

1  Parker,  ibid.  p.  230. 


104  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

We  cannot  apply  directly  any  scale  of  values  to  the 
inorganic  world;  but  in  the  organic  realm  we  may 
easily  distinguish  between  the  worths  of  different  ele- 
ments or  forms.  We  can  measure  the  values  of  differ- 
ent salts  to  vegetables,  or  the  worths  of  cereals  and 
fruits,  of  flowers  and  precious  stones,  to  animals  or  to 
man's  enjoyment  and  use  ;  but  we  cannot  predicate  of 
inorganic  things  distinctive  values  in  themselves  apart 
from  their  utility  to  existences  which  are  above  them. 
It  is  only  in  relation  to  something  higher  that  dead 
things  acquire  value.  With  the  introduction  of  life 
there  is  brought  in  also  the  new  element  of  worth. 
The  kingdom  of  life  is  a  kingdom  of  worths.  Even 
in  its  first  protoplasmic  movements  life  is  something 
which  assumes  its  own  value ;  it  is  worth  its  effort  to 
preserve  itself.  Worth  in  a  word  comes  in  with  life. 
Everywhere  the  idea  of  worth  accompanies  the  fact  of 
life.  Moreover,  we  may  construct  from  vital  manifes- 
tation a  very  excellent  standard  of  value  —  a  well  grad- 
uated scale  —  by  means  of  which  we  may  distinguish 
between  higher  and  lower  vital  worths.  We  may 
measure  vital  values  with  reference  to  two  character- 
istics of  the  organic  kingdom,  —  capacity  for  living,  and 
pleasure  in  living.  By  the  amount  of  capacity  for  life 
and  of  joy  in  life,  the  vital  worth  of  an  organism  may 
be  measured,  or  a  comparative  estimate  be  made  of  the 
place  on  the  scale  of  life  of  different  animals.  An 
animal  like  a  dog  possessed  of  a  complex  body  which 
is  capable  of  many  motions,  and  consequent  variety  of 
sensations,  stands  higher  on  the  scale  of  vital  value  than 
the  oyster;  as  in  turn  a  clam  with  its  distinct  nervous 


CHARACTER    OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     105 

and  muscular  system  is  more  highly  organized  and  is  ca- 
pable of  more  responsive  existence  to  its  surroundings,  as 
the  tide  comes  in,  than  is  an  amoeba  which  at  best  can 
only  throw  its  temporary  arms  around  a  passing  diatom. 
Vital  value,  then,  is  a  natural  sign;  and  advance  in 
vital  value  may  offer  a  further  clue  to  the  character  of 
the  direction  which  has  been  actually  followed  in  the 
development  of  life.  This  sign  may  become  one  of  fine 
significance  in  helping  us  determine  the  moral  character 
of  natural  development. 

A  fourth  characteristic  of  direction  in  nature  is  the 
sign  of  limitation. 

The  directive  principle  works  within  limits  in  the  de- 
velopment of  life.  Hence  the  character  of  the  evolu- 
tion is  to  be  estimated  with  reference  to  the  limitations 
which  are  given  in  its  sphere  of  action.  The  directing 
Power  in  nature  cannot  be  judged  as  an  unlimited  Om- 
nipotence. 

We  do  not  see  the  action  of  unlimited  Omnipotence 
within  any  limited  creation.  But  in  our  interpretation 
of  the  higher  meaning  of  nature  this  law  of  limitation  is 
too  often  overlooked ;  it  will  be  well  therefore  for  us  to 
dwell  upon  this  sign  of  limitation  in  evolution. 

We  observe  that  there  is  a  limit  fixed  by  the  connec- 
tion of  the  order  of  life  with  the  lower  order  of  inor- 
ganic matter.  The  organism  is  in  many  ways  still 
dependent  upon  the  inorganic  —  living  matter  upon 
dead  matter.  The  higher  feeds  upon  the  lower.  The 
lower  is  always  bound  closely  enough  to  the  higher  to 
be  its  servant.     This  mutual  dependence  forms  an  un- 


106  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

avoidable  limitation  under  any  conceivable  directive 
Power  in  the  evolution  of  the  organic  realm.  Such  direc- 
tive energy  may  transcend,  but  it  cannot  break  loose 
from  its  relation  to  the  inorganic  world.  Life  in  the 
drawing-room  indeed  has  gone  beyond  life  in  the 
kitchen  ;  but  if  the  freer  life  of  the  parlor  should  break 
its  natural  continuity  and  declare  its  utter  freedom  from 
the  serving  life  in  the  kitchen,  it  would  itself  soon  mis- 
erabl}^  perish.  Christian  Science,  so-called,  may  attempt 
to  do  that ;  —  to  live  happily  in  a  thoughtful  upper 
chamber  without  respect  to  the  work  to  be  done  in  the 
basement,  and  its  daily  dependence  upon  it;  it  may 
attempt  to  cut  mind  loose  from  the  limitations  of  the 
material ;  but  Omnipotence  in  nature  has  not  attempted 
to  do  that.  It  is  a  biological  truism  that  the  plant  can- 
not grow  except  from  its  roots,  the  eagle  cannot  soar 
out  of  the  air  in  which  it  spreads  its  wings ;  and 
thouglit,  likewise,  cannot  remain  in  this  bodily  organ- 
ism without  dependence  upon  the  changes  which  attend 
its  free  motions  in  the  cells  of  the  brain.  Mind  may 
hereafter  enter  into  different  and  better  relations  to  the 
physical  order  in  some  embodiment  beyond  our  possible 
present ;  Ijut  here  and  now  mind  finds  some  limits  in 
its  existing  relation  to  matter.  It  is  not  science  to  ig- 
nore them ;  neither  is  it  ever  Chiistian  not  to  be  scien- 
tific. It  is  the  plain  fact  of  our  life  that  the  highest  which 
we  know  is  still  bound  to  the  lowest  wliich  we  can  see ; 
we  belong  to  nature,  although  we  are  born  to  master  it. 
Secondly,  a  limit  to  directive  energy  is  fixed  in  the 
properties  of  the  vital  matter  within  the  cell.  Physical 
and  chuiiiitiil  properties,  even  when  combined   in   the 


CHARACTER    OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     107 

quickl}'  changeable,  unstable  proteids  for  the  play  of 
life,  are  still  limited  properties  and  energies.  Life  in 
the  protoplasmic  field  offers  to  a  directive  Intelligence 
large  and  noble  opportunity,  but  nevertheless  it  is  a  re- 
stricted field  of  action.  If  Omnipotence  chooses  to 
AYork  within  the  confines  of  a  living  cell,  there  are  some 
things  which  omnipotence  cannot  do  within  that  limited 
sphere.  It  may  develop,  but  it  cannot  at  the  same  time 
spoil  the  cell.  Omnipotence  has  been  truly  defined, 
not  as  the  power  to  do  everything,  but  as  the  power  to 
do  everything  that  can  be  done.  It  does  not  attempt 
the  impossible  either  in  a  microscopic  cell,  or  in  the 
world  around  us,  or  in  the  heavens  above. 

Thirdly,  there  is  a  limit  fixed  in  the  relation  of 
organic  forms  among  themselves.  The  organic  world 
is  one  realm,  and  all  its  species  exist  in  relations  to  each 
other.  A  very  interesting  scientific  chapter  concerning 
this  mutual  dependence  of  all  things  living  may  be  read 
by  those  who  care  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the 
services  of  many  kinds  which  insects  perform  both  in 
the  vegetable  and  animal  economy.  Probably  not  a 
single  family  of  insects  could  be  exterminated  without 
consequences  more  far-reaching  than  we  might  foresee. 
Millions  of  dollars  have  been  lost  because  of  the  visita- 
tion of  some  insect  tribe  to  men's  fields  and  orchards ; 
laree  investments  have  been  saved  because  some  other 
insect,  before  unknown,  has  been  imported  to  rescue 
from  devastation  the  orchards  and  the  grain  fields. 
And  our  obligations  to  the  insects  for  the  wealth  and 
beauty  of  our  world  is  beyond  all  estimate.  The  nat- 
ural laws  of  selection,  survival,  extermination,  adaptive 


108  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

variations,  are  expressions  of  this  general  interdepen- 
dence of  living  things  from  which  nothing  can  escape. 
But  this  organic  mutuality  acts  also  as  a  limitation 
upon  any  directive  Power  in  living  nature.  It  cannot 
do  violence  to  the  unity  of  life.  It  cannot  keep  life 
moving  on,  and  at  the  same  time  break  its  continuity. 
It  cannot  spin  and  break  life's  thread  at  the  same  time. 
Otherwise  it  would  not  be  a  principle  of  order.  It 
would  come  to  destroy,  and  not  to  fulfil. 

Having  thus  far  observed  first  the  evidence  of  the 
fact  of  direction,  and  then  having  marked  several  signs 
of  its  character ;  viz.,  the  sign  of  orderliness,  of  fitness, 
of  increasing  vital  value,  and  also  of  limitation ;  we  are 
now  prepared  for  some  conclusions  concerning  the  char- 
acter of  direction  in  nature.  Certain  inferences  as  to 
its  ultimate  quality  may  be  drawn  from  the  facts  which 
have  been  adduced. 

We  infer  that  the  directive  principle  throughout 
nature  has  intelligence. 

These  signs,  which  we  have  discovered,  we  recognize 
as  characteristics  of  intelligent  action.  Such  marks 
have  in  nature  the  appearance  of  mental  traits.  The 
directive  energy  throughout  evolution  acts  like  an  in- 
telligent influence  in  correlation  with  its  several  orders. 
Intelligence  in  nature,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  quantita- 
tively measured,  yet  it  may  be  effectively  present,  and 
its  presence  become  manifest  to  our  intelligence.  The 
only  cause  for  not  accepting  at  once  this  evidence  of  in- 
telligence in  natural  direction  arises  from  the  difficulty 
of  conceiving  scientifically  the  method  of  its  action  —  it 


CHARACTER    OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     109 

is  a  difficulty,  that  is,  of  the  imagination  rather  than  of 
reason.  How,  it  will  be  asked,  can  an  energy  act  within 
a  natural  order,  and  be  recognized,  when  it  escapes  any 
quantitative  measurement  in  the  laboratory?  Stick 
to  quantities,  says  a  mathematical  friend,  and  you  will 
be  right.  Yes,  but  quantities  have  some  immeasurable 
qualities  —  even  the  x  in  his  equation  has  the  quality 
of  being  an  unknown  quantity ;  and  the  nth.  power  has 
the  quality  of  the  indefinite  or  the  mathematical  infinite. 
Nature  possesses  quality  throughout.  Evolution  has 
the  qualitative  signs  which  we  have  been  reviewing ;  and 
they  must  mean  something.  They  seem  to  imply  intel- 
ligent action.  How  is  that  possible  ?  Well,  the  rela- 
tion between  our  thought  and  our  body  is  nature's 
answer,  at  our  present  stage  of  evolution,  that  it  is  pos- 
sible :  and  it  is  answer  enough,  if  we  will  not  obscure 
it.  Energies  so  different  as  mind  and  matter,  as  direc- 
tive power  and  mechanical  forces,  can  because  they  do 
work  together.  Deny  mind  working  directively  within 
yourself,  and  you  may  also  deny  mind  working  direc- 
tively in  the  cells.  But  in  such  denial  you  have  left  no 
rational  explanation  either  of  the  free  play  of  your  own 
mind,  or  of  the  mechanical  processes  of  the  living  cell. 
Mind  and  matter  are  to  us  irreducible  to  a  common 
term ;  but  in  experience  the  one  accompanies  and  acts 
upon  the  course  of  the  lower  factor,  and  the  lower  limits 
the  power  of  the  higher.  We  find  in  mind  a  true  cause, 
that  is,  an  actual  directive  force  over  the  nerve  centres, 
with  which  it  is  vitally  related.  Now  we  hold  that  we 
may  discover,  and  that  the  signs  of  nature  indicate  that 
there  is  a  similar  action  and  reaction  between  all  living 


110  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

matter  and  some  Intelligence.  Though  the  mental  fac- 
tor in  evolution  cannot  be  rendered  visible,  or  weighed 
and  verified  in  chemical  proportions  and  reactions,  it 
exists,  and  many  residual  phenomena  show  that  it  exists, 
in  some  influential  relation  to  the  whole  organic  process 
of  the  world.  Mind  in  some  way  is  a  determining  factor 
of  evolution.  Mind  has  been  persistent  in  its  influence 
throuo-h  the  entire  course  of  nature.  We  know  that  it 
works  as  directive  energy  in  us  ;  but  we  are  products  of 
evolution;  we  cannot  deny  therefore  that  it  has  worked 
before  us ;  —  if  it  can  guide  us,  it  can  have  been  a  direc- 
tive energy  in  the  simplest  cell,  and  throughout  the 
whole  nature-process  from  which  we  come.  Within  the 
limits  of  its  properties  the  organic  realm  as  a  whole  is 
open  to  directive  Intelligence. 

Such  directive  action  of  a  superior  Intelligence  may 
be  conceived  of  as  occurring  either  continuously,  or  at 
certain  selected  and  specialized  points,  or  in  both  these 
modes ;  in  neither  case  would  it  be  necessarily  a  con- 
tradiction, or  a  suspension,  of  the  mechanical  law  of 
the  conservation  of  energy.  It  may  witness  only  to 
a  limitation  of  that  law ;  and  the  limitation  of  it  may 
lie  either  in  the  scope  of  its  action,  or  in  our  power  to 
measure  its  range.  It  may  be  that  in  mental  energy 
throughout  evolution,  and  in  its  physical  correlations, 
we  are  to  recognize  simply  a  form  of  energy  which  we 
are  incompetent  to  determine  with  any  measuring-rod 
now  within  the  hand  of  our  science.  A  gap  in  our 
knowledge  may  lie  here,  but  no  real  break  in  nature's 
continuity  between  the  spiritual  and  the  material.  Who 
can  follow  the  radiant  energy  of  the  sun  through  all  its 


CHARACTER    OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     111 

relations  in  the  luminiferous  ether  of  space,  and  declare 
what  its  ultimate  transformations  may  be,  so  that  noth- 
ing shall  be  wasted,  and  not  a  stray  sunbeam  lost? 
Who  then  can  trace  the  more  ethereal  course  of  thought 
through  the  universe,  and  discern  the  utmost  possibil- 
ities of  its  radiant  energy?  Indeed  a  puzzled  astron- 
omer, in  a  recent  article,  raises  the  question  whether 
there  may  not  be  some  unknown  form  of  energy  con- 
nected with  the  nebulro  to  account  for  their  intense 
radiance. 1  We  know  too  little  even  of  the  physical 
energies  of  the  universe  to  warrant  us  in  excluding  the 
possible  action  and  play  of  the  force  of  directive  In- 
telligence in  nature.  So  Mr.  Ward  has  argued  with 
good  reason:  "Not  only  are  the  several  forms  of 
energy  qualitatively  distinct,  but  we  have,  I  take  it, 
no  means  of  knowing  that  all  these  forms  have  been 
ascertained.  .  .  .  But  it  is  obvious  that  this  possibility 
of  unknown  forms  of  energy,  coupled  with  the  probabil- 
ity that  the  known  forms  are  not  all  mechanical,  sug- 
gests many  new  vistas,  for  which  it  behooves  us  to  keep 
an  open  mind."  ^ 

The  real  question  is  not  one  of  possibility,  but  of 
fact.  We  have  already  found  in  the  facts  reasons 
which  compel  belief  in  "  the  unknown  factor  of  evolu- 
tion." We  go  a  step  further  in  the  affirmation  that 
this  unknown  factor,  the  working  of  which  the  phe- 
nomena of  life  lead  us  to  assume,  remains  unknown 
only  as  we  seek  to  discover  its  nature  among  the 
physical  and  chemical  properties  of  living  matter ;  but 

1  S.  Newcomb,  Pop.  Science  Month.  Iviii.  p.  149. 

2  J^aturalism  and  Agnosticism,  vol.  i.  p.  168. 


112  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

that  it  makes  itself  known  as  present  and  influential 
amid  these  properties,  the  moment  we  behold  them  in 
the  light  of  our  mental  life.  In  other  words,  our 
knowledo-e  of  the  order  of  intelligence  in  which  we 
live,  sheds  an  interpretative  light  down  through  the 
lower  orders  to  the  very  foundations  on  which  our 
dwelling  has  been  built.  It  is  true  knowledge,  when- 
ever we  can  read  that  which  is  lower  in  nature  by  the 
light  of  that  which  is  higher.  The  mental  fulfilments 
interpret  the  animal  beginnings. 

In  our  effort  thus  to  interpret  nature  in  the  new  light 
of  evolutionary  science  the  difficulty  of  the  imagination 
will  often  be  brought  back  to  us,  How  can  these  things 
be  ?  It  is  the  old  difficulty  in  the  spiritual  conception 
of  the  world  which  a  master  of  the  wisdom  of  his  day 
expressed  to  the  great  Teacher,  as  they  were  talking  by 
night  together  alone  upon  the  housetop  under  the  stars, 
—  How  can  it  be  ? 

The  conceptual  difficulty  immediately  before  us  at 
this  present  point  of  our  argument  relates  to  the  cor- 
relation and  co-working  of  intelligence  and  the  mechan- 
ism of  nature.  Both  exist ;  the  facts  show  mechanism, 
and  the  facts  indicate  also  something  that  looks  like 
intelligent  action ;  the  nature-process,  as  Oscar  Hertwig 
puts  it,  resembling  a  process  of  thought.^  We  may 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  same  facts  and  the  same 
evidence  which  disclose  mechanism  in  nature,  indicate 
also  the  intelligent  operation  of  that  mechanism. 

Life  is  not  merely  a  process,  it  is  progress ;  evolution 
is  not  only  development,  it  is  progressive  development ; 

1  Die  Zelle  unci  die  Geivebe,  p.  258. 


CHARACTER   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     113 

its  advance  may  be  marked  and  measured  on  the  scale 
of  vital  values.  The  application  of  this  scale  of  vital 
values  to  evolution  gives  an  unmistakable  reading ;  it  is 
sufficient  answer  to  those  who  hold  that  evolution  is  a 
process  without  progress.  But  how  is  an  intelligent 
natural  process  to  be  conceived? 

As  a  needed  aid  to  the  imagination  some  supposi- 
tions may  be  suggested  which  may  help  us  in  the 
effort  rationally  to  conceive  how  such  intelligent  di- 
rection may  act  throughout  the  course  of  nature.  We 
may  refer  for  this  purpose  to  an  ingenious  hypothesis 
which  some  speculative  trouble  with  the  laws  of  heat 
led  the  great  physicist,  Clerk  Maxwell,  to  put  forth, 
and  which  has  become  known  as  Maxwell's  hypothesis 
of  the  sorting  demon.  He  supposed  that  a  vessel  was 
made  having  two  compartments,  separated  by  a  parti- 
tion, through  a  hole  in  which  particles  of  matter  could 
pass  from  one  part  of  the  vessel  to  the  other.  Then 
he  conceived  an  intelligence  presiding  over  it,  who 
could  perceive  the  darting  molecules,  as  they  came 
streaming  towards  the  partition,  and  by  deftly  opening 
and  shutting  the  hole  he  could  sift  all  the  molecules  of 
the  same  kind  into  one  compartment.  Thus  he  imag- 
ined that  through  the  agency  of  this  sorting  demon, 
molecules  of  differing  velocities  might  be  separated 
within  the  two  compartments,  and  without  any  expen- 
diture or  loss  of  molecular  energy.  So  without  any 
breach  of  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy,  matter 
might  be  intelligently  arranged  and  determined.  The 
direction  of  those  molecules  which  entered  the  hole 
would  not  have  been  deflected,  they  would  not  even 

8 


114  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

have  been  touched;  but  nevertheless  they  would  have 
been  selected.^ 

This  clever  conception  is  good  for  its  purpose  ;  but 
it  would  be  carrying  it  too  far  to  say  that  no  energy  is 
expended  in  this  assortment  of  the  molecules.  The 
sorting  demon  in  his  own  motions  performs  work, 
although  he  does  not  touch  the  molecules.  His  work 
might  not  be  seen  by  an  intelligent  observer,  if  we  sup- 
pose him  to  be  located  within  the  cover.  He  would  per- 
ceive only  the  regular  streaming  in  of  the  atoms,  and 
might  be  an  agnostic  as  to  any  arranging  Intelligence 
outside  his  little  box.  He  might,  however,  if  he  had  a 
good  mind,  infer  from  the  regularit}^  of  the  molecules 
coming  in  through  the  hole  in  the  cover  that  somehow, 
by  some  sifting  agency,  they  had  been  assorted  before  he 
had  knowledge  of  them.  An  intelligence  within  the 
box  might  say :  "  It  is  true  I  know  in  part,  but  what  I 
know,  I  know ;  and  one  thing  I  know  is  that  by  some 
agency  or  energy  at  work  among  the  molecules  they 
come  regularly  into  my  world." 

Direction,  we  are  thus  imagining  with  Maxwell,  may 
be  conceived  to  be  given  to  matter,  although  it  may  not 
be  measurable  as  a  quantity  from  our  side  of  things.  In 
our  own  life  there  is  certainly  action  and  reaction 
between  intelligence  and  the  cells  of  the  bodily  organ- 
ism. And  as  matter  of  fact  nature  throughout  its  age- 
h)]ig  process  seems  to  have  been  very  intelligently 
sifted.2 


1  Maxwell,  Theory  of  Heat,  ed.  1894,  pp.  358  sq.     His  object  was  to 
illustrate  a  limitation  iu  the  second  law  of  thermodynamics. 
-  See  Ward,  opus  cit.  i.  pp.  201  sq. 


CHARACTER   OF  DIRECTION  IN  NATURE     115 

Another  aid  to  the  scientific  imagination  in  conceiving 
the  mode  in  which  intelhgence  may  act  as  a  directive 
principle  without  measurable  expenditure  of  work,  may 
be  obtained  if  we  carry  out  in  a  somewhat  similar  way  a 
suggestion  of  the  physiologist  Verworn  concerning  the 
action  of  stimuli  on  organisms.  He  remarks  :  ''It  is 
necessary  to  the  occ  urrence  of  the  phenomena  in  question 
(stimulation)  that  differences  in  stimulation  exist  in 
different  parts  of  the  body.  If  stimuli  act  equally  upon 
all  sides,  all  the  effects  of  stimulation  described  in  the 
preceding  section  occur,  but  a  directive  effect  is  neces- 
sarily absent.  Only  unsymmetrical  stimulation  can 
control  the  direction  of  motion."  ^  Think  a  moment  of 
that.  Unsymmetrical  stimulation,  it  appears,  may  con- 
trol the  direction  of  motion.  If  then  an  intelligence 
like  Maxwell's  sorting  demon,  could  contrive  merely  to 
alter  the  position  of  different  stimuli,  to  sort  out  some 
stimuli  and  to  gather  others  together,  he  would  accord- 
ing to  this  physiologist  exert  a  directive  effect  upon  the 
development  of  life.  If  he  could  so  select  and  utilize 
stimuli  in  the  course  of  the  world  without  being  de- 
tected, he  would  act  as  an  unseen  providence  in  the 
guidance  of  life.  An  exterior  Power  can  readily  be 
conceived  so  to  act  without  observation  by  us,  at  least, 
in  its  work.  If  known,  it  must  become  known  through 
its  effects.  The  unknown  Factor  in  evolution,  that 
is,  will  be  revealed  gradually,  progressively,  more  and 
more  evidently  through  the  character  of  its  stimula- 
tion in  nature  and  history. 

1  Gen.  Phjs.  s.  429. 


CHAPTER  VI 

MORAL   CHARACTER   OF   DIRECTION   IN   NATURE 

Assuming  that  evolution  indicates  intelligence,  the 
further  question  at  once  arises,  Is  its  direction  also 
moral?  From  the  character  of  intelligence  a  direct 
presumption  arises  that  it  must  also  be  moral ;  for 
reason  and  right  within  our  experience  of  them  seem  to 
be  vitally  related.  Given  anywhere  the  rational,  we 
may  assume  from  human  experience  the  existence  like- 
wise in  some  degree  of  the  moral.  At  least  reason  has 
natural  moral  ability  enough  to  discern  some  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong.  But  besides  this  general 
presumption  that  a  rationally  intelligible  universe  must 
possess  also  some  moral  character,  do  the  facts  of 
direction  which  may  actually  be  observed,  show  indi- 
cation of  any  moral  guidance  also  in  nature? 

This  is  the  old  question  —  older  than  the  book  of  Job 
—  of  moral  providence  in  the  world.  We  are  to  look 
into  it  again  in  the  new  light,  which  falls  upon  all 
man's  problems,  from  the  nineteenth  century's  science. 

If  there  is  benevolent  character  in  evolution,  it  will 
naturally  reveal  itself  in  a  steady  enhancement  of  vital 
values.  We  should  search  for  indications  of  it  in  life's 
increasing  worth.  Whatever  increases  vital  values  has 
benevolent  character.     But   is   there  secured   through 

116 


MORAL    CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  ll7 

evolution  any  such  gain  in  the  worth  of  life  ?  Our  pro- 
blem —  the  old,  but  ever  new  question  of  benevolence 
in  nature  —  puts  itself  therefore  scientifically  after  this 
manner:  Judged  by  the  tests  of  vital  values,  viz., 
capacity  for  life  and  increase  of  happiness,  does  evo- 
lution show  good  moral  character? 

Now  the  one  broad  fact  open  to  all  eyes  is  that  life 
in  the  age-long  course  of  its  development  has  gained 
capacity  for  higher  exercise  and  richer  happiness. 
Nature  at  first  lives  and  stirs,  it  does  not  play  or  sing. 
Nature  erelong  begins  to  play  and  breaks  forth  into 
song. 

Mark  this  ascent  of  life  on  the  scale  of  sensitive- 
ness, and  the  moral  significance  of  this  advance.  We 
are  very  near  the  minimum  of  sensitiveness  when 
we  watch  the  organic  responses  of  the  Infusoria.  The 
simple  reflex  motion  of  an  animalcule  to  a  stimulus  repre- 
sents a  degree  of  sensitiveness  just  above  the  zero- 
mark.  For  we  may  speak  of  a  zero-mark  of  psychic 
life  immediately  below  which  there  may  be  chemical 
reaction,  and  just  above  which  organic  sensitiveness 
may  occur ;  and,  rising  from  that  point,  is  the  whole 
ascending  series  of  the  degrees  and  kinds  of  psychic  life. 
Now  if  life  reaching  up  towards  its  more  intelligent 
manifestations  had  been  stopped  short  just  above  this 
psychic  zero-point;  if  the  simple  reflex  motion  of  the 
free  swimming  Infusoria  had  marked  its  highest  attain- 
ment in  this  respect ;  certainly  it  would  have  disclosed 
at  that  broken  point  little  evidence  so  far  as  we  can 
see  of  any  vital  worth  in  happiness.  The  infinitesimal 
life   of   a   drop   of  water   shows  free  motions,  organic 


118  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

responses,  and  some  effort  at  self-maintenance,  but  it 
has  occurred  to  no  observer  of  it  to  regard  it  as  a 
joyous  existence.  Yet  in  this  freer  though  infinitesimal 
world  is  opened  the  possibility  of  future  joyousness, 
and  some  prophetic  hint  too  of  its  coming.  For  let 
sensitiveness,  once  gained,  increase ;  let  it  become  fully 
developed,  and  in  time  animal  pleasure  in  existence 
shall  be  the  issue  of  it.  Follow  the  long  process  of  the 
development  of  sensation  through,  and  you  shall  see  this 
first  glimmer  of  pleasurable  existence  grow  as  a  beam 
in  the  darkness.  Life  far  away  began  to  gain  capacity 
for  freer  outward  play  and  for  finer  internal  harmony. 
It  put  forth  its  tentacles  toward  some  happier  air, 
and  felt  after  the  glow  of  the  sunshine.  In  its  earlier 
metazoan  stages  the  gain  may  seem  but  slight  in  the 
power  of  pleasurable  sensation.  A  colony  of  cells, 
bound  in  some  mutuality  of  service,  seems  to  be  only 
a  working  colony  toiling  in  their  humble  way  together 
for  existence,  but  with  little  or  no  sensation  of  life  as 
sweet  and  good.  Nevertheless,  even  there  the  kingdom 
of  animal  pleasure  is  near  at  hand,  and  it  is  to  come. 
Elementary  life  is  dull  and  silent ;  but  something  would 
be  lost,  something  begun  worth  the  finishing  would 
disappear,  should  its  effort  at  self-maintenance  and 
up-building  cease  ;  if  life,  after  its  first  brief  flickering, 
should  sink  back  into  the  inorganic.  A  good  beginning 
at  least  of  something  possible  and  well  worth  gaining, 
would  be  hopelessly  lost,  should  this  early  metazoan  life 
disappear  wholly  into  the  darkness  from  whence  it 
came.  Those  cells,  as  arranged  in  that  simple  connection, 
do  not  yet  spell  happiness ;    but  they  contain  hint  that 


MORAL    CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  119 

something  has  been  begun  which  may  yet  grow  into  joy- 
ous existence.  The  sensory  satisfaction  of  a  well  fed 
worm  or  an  oyster  may  not  mean  much ;  but  it  is  a  new 
vital  fact,  and  it  means  something.  Growing  sentiency, 
as  evolution  keeps  on,  claims  attention.  It  becomes 
in  time  a  predominant  factor,  and  is  a  clear  sign  that 
something  good  is  surely  coming  through  it  to  revela- 
tion. The  mystery  of  life,  as  it  shall  disclose  itself, 
may  prove  one  of  goodness.  An  observer,  conceived 
to  be  standing  at  some  point  far  away,  where  life  had 
just  come  to  evident  feeling  of  itself,  might  not  have 
discerned  sign  enough  of  moral  character  in  it  to  make 
him  believe ;  but  he  might  have  seen  enough  to  cause 
him  to  cease  to  be  an  unbeliever,  —  to  lead  him  to 
wonder  and  to  wait  for  something  better  still  to  be 
revealed. 

Follow  in  imagination  this  process  of  development 
on  and  on,  until  life  on  the  earth  becomes  aglow  with 
sensation,  and  in  ever- varied  forms  is  capable  of  har- 
monious adaptations  and  the  satisfied  appetencies  of 
the  anim.al  world  as  we  now  know  it.  Measure  the 
vital  value  of  it  at  its  height,  when  at  last  it  has  broken 
forth  into  supernal  joy  and  gladness  in  our  human 
consciousness  of  life  as  something  nobly  to  be  won, 
and  grandly  worth  the  living.  An  immeasurable  dis- 
tance has  been  traversed  along  this  way  marked  by  the 
sign  of  vital  worth.  A  vast  gain  has  been  made  in 
pleasurable  capacity.  The  happiness  possible  to  a  man, 
as  compared  with  the  happiness  possible  to  a  monad,  is 
high  as  the  heavens  above  the  earth.  But  tlie  traversing 
this   vast   distance    and   the    gain  of   this  high   power 


120  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

constitute  a  revelation;  hereby  is  made  manifest  the 
moral  character  of  the  evolution.  The  end  reached  is 
a  good  end.  Naturalism,  therefore,  as  judged  by  the 
ao-es  of  accumulated  contributions  to  sensitive  capacity 
for  happy  hf e  has  worked  well ;  naturalism,  when  seen 
thus  in  the  large,  takes  on  moral  character;  the  order 
on  the  whole  is  a  worthy  order. 

Thus  far  our  argument  has  kept  entirely  on  the  sunny 
side  of  the  way  of  life,  and  has  passed  the  evil  unnoticed 
by.  But  all  through  nature  does  not  the  dark  side 
run  parallel  with  the  sunny  side?  With  increase  of 
sentiency  and  growing  capacity  for  joy,  do  we  not  have 
given  also  increase  of  suffering  and  greater  power  of 
evil  ?     Is  not  the  poet  strictly  scientific  when  he  sings, 

"  Chords  that  vibrate  sweetest  pleasure, 
Thrill  the  deepest  notes  of  woe." 

It  may  not  be  denied  that  with  enhanced  capacity  for 
pleasure  there  is  opened  greater  liability  to  pain.  We 
can  suffer  most  through  our  friendships.  Love  holds 
within  itself  all  the  sorrows  of  the  cross.  Death  has 
always  shadowed  life ;  and  the  shadow  of  it  is  deepest 
over  the  brightest  life.  Man  who  can  live  most,  finds 
it  hardest  to  die. 

To  such  questioning  of  the  moral  intent  of  the  world, 
as  some  good  intention  seems  revealed  through  increas- 
ing sentiency,  two  answers  are  directly  presented  by  the 
observed  facts. 

The  pleasure  and  the  pain  do  not,  as  matter  of  fact, 
increase  in  equal  proportion,  but  the  sum  of  pleasurable 
feeling  ov^er  painful  sensation  represents  a  gain  of  life 


MORAL    CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  121 

on  the  whole.     The  living  capacity  increases  faster  than 
the   dying    pain.     Comparing    any   later   stage    of    the 
development  of  life  with  earlier  stages  of  it,  the  gain  is 
always  on  the  side  of  happy  sentiency.     The  tree  of 
life  bears  its  fairest  blossoms  at  the  top.     The  singing 
birds    build   their    nests    among    the    upper    branches. 
Wider  vistas  of  joy  open  ever  as  life  ascends.     Looking 
at  the  matter  with  close  scientific  scrutiny,  we  perceive 
that  increase  of  specialization  in  nature  introduces  an 
overplus    of    pleasurable   sensation.     The    unorganized 
world  is  not  the  happiest  world.     Highly   specialized 
life  takes  more  pleasure  in  existence  than  can  possibly 
enter  and  pervade  a  mere  colony  of  cells.    The  pleasures 
which  are  rendered  possible  through  the  development 
of  each  special  sense,  vastly  exceed  the  accompanying 
amount  of  possible  painful  sensation.    Who  of  us  would 
give  up  a  good  ear  for  music  on  account  of  the  discords 
which  at  times  one  must  hear,  and  forget  ?     The  seeing 
eye,  itself  become  sunny  in  the  sunshine,  beholds  much 
more  on  the  earth  in  which  it  may  take  delight  than 
in  which  it  may  perceive  suffering.     Each  new  increase 
in  the  power  of  the  senses   reveals   a   world   of   finer 
harmonies  and  fairer  visions.     The  light  in  which  the 
finished  eye  sees  life,  is  vaster  than   all  the  shadows. 
Though  death  reigns,  the  higher  animal  world  is  the 
happiest  world  while  it  lives. 

Very  much  to  the  purpose  at  this  point  are  the  facts 
to  which  Mr.  Wallace  has  called  attention  in  his  com- 
ments on  "  The  Ethical  Aspect  of  the  Struggle  for 
Existence."  He  thinks  that  these  supposed  miseries 
of  animals  "  have  little  I'eal  existence,  but  are  the  re- 


122  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

flection  of  the  imagined  sensations  of  cultivated  men 
and  women  in  similar  circumstances ;  and  that  the 
amount  of  actual  suffering  caused  by  the  struggle  for 
existence  among  animals  is  altogether  insignificant." 
In  evidence  of  this  opinion  he  recalls  the  fact  that 
*' animals  are  entirely  spared  the  pain  we  suffer  in  the 
anticipation  of  death  —  a  pain  far  greater,  in  most  cases, 
than  the  reality."  He  refers  also  to  "  their  almost  per- 
petual enjoyment  of  their  lives ; "  and  to  the  further 
fact  which  consideration  of  the  nature  of  their  enjoy- 
ments indicates,  that  "  animals,  as  a  rule,  enjoy  all  the 
happiness  of  which  they  are  capable."  He  draws  this 
conclusion  concerning  the  ethical  aspect  of  the  struggle 
for  existence :  "  What  it  really  brings  about,  is,  the 
maximum  of  life  and  of  the  enjoyment  of  life  with  the 
minimum  of  suffering  and  pain.  Given  the  necessity 
of  death  and  reproduction  —  and  without  these  there 
could  have  been  no  progressive  development  of  the 
organic  world,  —  and  it  is  difficult  even  to  imagine  a 
system  by  which  a  greater  balance  of  happiness  could 
have  been  secured."  ^ 

In  connection  with  these  remarks  of  Mr.  Wallace  we 
may  recall  the  reflections  which  have  impressed  other 
naturalists,  that  the  larger  part  of  the  waste  and  de- 
struction of  animal  life  according  to  nature's  beneficent 
provision  is  pre-natal,  occurring  amid  germs  and  seeds 
and  embryonic  forms  before  the  rise  or  growth  of  in- 
dividual feeling;  and  also  the  fact  that  even  the 
higher  animals  apparently  have  no  conception  of  deatli. 
Knowledge  of   death,  and  the    pain  of  it,  is  acquired 

^  Darwinism,  pp.  36  sq. 


MORAL    CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  123 

only  by  man,  and  by  man  also  is  acquired  the  spiritual 
power  to  overcome  the  fear  of  it.  In  other  words, 
knowledge  of  the  full  mystery  of  evil  is  given  only  to 
that  being  to  whom  is  given  also  power  to  rise  above  it. 
We  who  can  see  how  dark  the  cloud  is,  have  acquired 
power  also  to  believe  that  the  whole  mystery  of  evil  has 
its  hour  only  in  the  infinite  sunlight,  and  the  shadow 
of  it  passes  away. 

To  the  same  purpose  we  may  refer  again  to  an  inter- 
esting post-Darwinian  study  of  the  play  of  animals.  The 
fact  that  animals,  as  well  as  children  play,  is  familiar  to 
all  observers  of  the  ways  of  animals.  Any  kitten  is 
proof  enough  of  it ;  but  how  play  ever  came  into  the 
hungry,  struggling,  cruel  animal  world  is  another  ques- 
tion which  has  puzzled  our  naturalists ;  and  the  moral 
significance  of  the  introduction  of  play  as  well  as  work 
into  the  animal  kingdom,  is  something  which  seems 
generally  to  have  been  overlooked.  An  easy  answer  to 
the  question  why  do  animals  play,  would  be,  because 
of  the  superabundance  of  animal  spirits.  It  was  the 
poet  Schiller  who  first  gave  this  simple  account  of 
animal  play.  Herbert  Spencer  elaborated  it  among  his 
universal  formulas  for  the  comprehension  of  all  things. 
He  supplemented  the  answer  with  the  suggestion  that 
while  surplus  energy  is  the  first  condition  of  animal 
play,  the  precise  forms  of  play  are  determined  by  imita- 
tion. Imitation,  combined  with  animal  spirits,  brings 
about  this  happy  result  of  playfulness,  which  we  regard 
as  a  sign  of  the  moral  value  of  life.  The  new-Darwin- 
ians, however,  are  not  content  with  so  naive  an  expla- 
nation   of   animal  play;    and   one    of   them,    Professor 


124  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

Groos,  sees  in  animal  play  something  more  than  a  mere 
incidental  phase,  or  happy  accessory  of  the  development 
of  life.  It  all  comes  under  natural  selection,  he  would 
have  us  understand.  Play  has  its  necessary  place  and 
function  even  in  the  struggle  of  existence  as  "  the 
young  form  of  work."  As  Mr.  Thomson  puts  it : 
"  The  play  period  is  an  apprenticeship,  a  preparation  for 
adult  life,  with  the  great  advantage  that  mistakes  are  not 
of  serious  moment.  Throughout  the  ages  those  kittens 
and  other  young  carnivores  which  hunted  best  in  fun 
have  hunted  Lest  in  earnest ;  the  non-players  and  the 
bad  players  have  been  eliminated.  Play  is  thus  a  re- 
hearsal without  responsibilities,  a  sham  fight  before  the 
battle  of  life  begins,  a  preliminary  canter  before  the 
real  race.  In  short  (as  Groos  says),  while  there  is  some 
truth  in  the  assertion  that  animals  play  because  they 
are  young,  it  is  perhaps  as  true  that  they  have  a  period 
of  youth  in  order  that  they  may  play,  and  the  forms  of 
play  have  been  defined  in  relation  to  the  realities  of 
adult  life."  1 

This  naturalistic  account  of  the  origin  of  play  in  the 
animal  world  illustrates  the  beneficent  working  of  the 
severe  laws  of  natural  selection  and  the  elimination  of 
the  unfit.  It  is  another  instance  of  the  goodness  in 
which  nature's  severity  issues.  Indeed  the  old  riddle 
which  Samson  proposed  to  the  Philistines  might  be 
used  as  a  scientific  statement  of  one  of  the  moral 
enigmas  of  the  creation ;  for  it  is  strictly  true  that  out 
of  nature's  strength  comes  forth  her  sweetness.  As  in 
the  body  of  the  lion  were  found  the  bees  and  the  honey, 

1  Science  of  Life,  p.  210.     See  Groos,  The  Play  of  Animals,  p.  75. 


MORAL   CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  125 

SO  from  what  may  seem  at  times  to  have  been  the  fierce 
power  and  the  cruel  hunger  of  natui^e  has  come  forth 
in  time  the  hum  of  pleasurable  existence  and  the  sweet- 
ness of  her  life.  As  we  owe  to  the  severe  mercies  of 
natural  selection  much  of  the  beauty  of  the  flowers  and 
the  songfulness  of  the  birds,  so  to  the  necessities  of  con- 
flict, to  the  hunger  and  peril  and  strife  of  the  organic 
world,  we  are  indebted  for  the  playfulness  of  the  higher 
animals.  Play  has  entered  in  as  a  part  of  the  very 
struggle  of  existence.  It  is  not  therefore  something  to 
be  apologized  for  as  though  it  were  but  an  incident,  or 
a  recreation;  play  first  found  place  in  nature  because 
of  its  utility;  and  as  a  part  and  happy  issue  of  the 
struggle  of  life,  its  value  is  enhanced  as  life  ascends,  the 
period  of  it  being  prolonged  in  the  higher  and  domesti- 
cated animals.  With  us  the  power  to  play  becomes  a  spir- 
itual gift  which  may  be  inwardly  exercised  through  all 
life's  hungry  years,  and  at  last  in  the  religious  dreams 
of  old  age  be  still  part  of  the  soul's  free  preparation 
and  expectancy  for  the  life  beyond.  Indeed  the  origin 
and  use  of  play  in  nature  furnishes  fine  text  from  which 
discourse  might  be  made  concerning  the  higher  mean- 
ing and  value  of  play  as  nature's  happy  gift  to  our  spir- 
itual life  and  freedom.  As  of  the  higher  animals,  so 
even  more  of  men  and  women,  it  may  be  true,  that  those 
who  play  best  may  succeed  and  survive  best.  Cer- 
tainly so  good  a  gift,  which  nature  was  so  long  pre- 
paring, as  the  power  to  play  well,  ought  not  to  be 
cheapened  in  our  fashions,  or  tainted  with  commercial- 
ism and  vulgarized,  as  in  the  habit  of  betting.  The 
animals  do  not  play  from  any  adventitious  interest  bor- 


126  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

rowed  to  give  zest  to  their  frolicsome  motions.  Only 
man  vulgarizes  play.  Like  everything  else  which  is 
natural,  play  ought  to  be  idealized ;  it  may  have  place 
and  use  in  our  best  and  most  spiritual  life.  You 
remember  that  it  was  a  stern  prophet  of  old  who  added 
this  fine  touch  to  his  description  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
the  city  of  Truth :  "  And  the  streets  of  the  city  shall  be 
full  of  boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof."  ^ 

To  continue  in  such  practical  discourse  concerning 
our  true  use  and  idealization  of  play,  might  lead  us 
somewhat  aside  from  our  immediate  argument;  we  re- 
turn to  that,  and  claim  the  coming  at  length  of  play  into 
animal  life  as  another  sign  that  nature's  vast  process 
has  happy  character;  and  happy  character,  measuring 
it  on  the  scale  of  vital  values,  is  an  indication  of  good 
purpose  or  intent,  that  is,  of  moral  character  in  nature. 

As  naturalists  look  into  the  lower  organic  world  they 
cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  at  times  with  the  apparent 
loneliness  and  joylessness  of  all  that  silent  realm. 
There  is  only  ceaseless  motion  and  hunger  there  —  an 
endless  passing  and  ceaseless  reproduction  of  forms, 
little  sensation,  no  sound,  nor  voice,  no  up-leaping  for 
very  joy,  no  comradeship,  no  music,  no  jjlay  in  all  that 
early  world  of  the  Infusoria  and  the  lower  organic 
realm.  But  when  into  this  drear  and  silent  world  play 
has  come  —  play  bright,  social,  pleasing,  sparkling  —  it 
is  like  a  new  dawning  of  life.  Here  is  another  beam 
in  the  darkness  which  shall  grow.  Here  is  one  of  life's 
first  hints  of  divinity.  Play  is  one  of  the  first  proofs 
of  a  benevolent  God  in  the  animal  kingdom.     For  life, 

1  Zech.  viii.  5. 


MORAL   CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  127 

beginniiig  with  hunger  and  becoming  playful,  has 
thereby  taken  a  long  step  forward  towards  happiness. 
The  end  of  that  way  of  life  shall  be  satisfaction.  The 
height,  lost  in  the  light  above,  is  blessedness. 

Play  therefore,  let  it  be  repeated  and  emphasized, 
when  it  came  into  a  world  of  hunger  and  of  death,  came 
as  one.  of  life's  first  promises,  and  it  marks,  with  all  the 
spirit  and  fun  and  joj^ousness  of  it,  a  distinct  gain,  a 
moral  gain,  of  evolution.  This  is  not  a  sign  to  be  over- 
looked and  passed  by,  if  one  would  judge  truly  the 
character  of  the  world-process. 

Again,  as  the  second  answer  to  the  doubt  which  the 
dark  side  of  life  often  compels  us  to  feel,  we  must  bear 
constantly  in  mind  that  characteristic  of  direction  which 
we  have  described  as  the  law  of  limitation.  In  any 
conceivable  world  a  directive  Intelligence  would  work 
under  limitations.  Creation  is  itself  limitation.  A 
thought  spoken,  an  idea  wrought  into  marble,  an 
argument  put  into  a  book,  an  imagination  construed 
in  a  poem,  —  this  is  not  only  a  creation  by  the  free 
spirit,  but  it  is  also  a  limitation  of  it.  All  manifestation 
is  self-limitation  as  well  as  self -revelation.  This  is  as 
true  of  infinite  as  well  as  of  finite  mind.  Divine  ideas 
objectified  in  matter,  expressed  in  suns  and  stars  and 
living  cells,  bound  together  in  one  harmonious  order  of 
nature,  fall  under  the  same  self-imposed  law  of  creative 
hmitations.  The  divine  word  cannot  be  recalled.  What 
God  does  He  does  forever.  It  is  enough  if  we  may 
know  that  the  sculptor's  thought  has  wrought  to  noble 
use  the  marble  in  which  it  is  formed,  or  the  poet's 
genius   has   formed  a  happy  harmony  of  words,  or  the 


128  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

divine  ideas  made  all  things  work  together  for  good. 
With  lesser  creations,  indeed,  such  as  a  picture  or  a 
book  we  may  say.  That  is  as  well  done  as  it  could  be 
done;  colors  or  words  could  be  used  no  better.  Our 
limited  knowledge  may  not  allow  us  to  go  so  far  as  that 
and  to  say  of  nature,  as  some  theologians  have  done,  — 
It  is  the  best  possible  world.  Nor  will  it  permit  us  to 
deny  that  it  is.  We  do  not  know.  We  may  reason 
philosophically  that  it  must  be.  But  scientifically  it  is 
enough  if  we  can  find  reason  to  think  that  it  is  a  good 
world ;  that  on  the  whole  life  works  to  good  purpose ; 
that  the  ascent  of  nature  is  a  distinct  moral  gain  of 
happy  sentiency.  Under  the  limitations  of  nature,  as 
we  know  its  matter  and  its  laws,  life  has  advanced  in 
vital  worth  and  power  of  joy.  That  is  its  marked  and 
predominant  character.  We  cannot  reasonably  deny  this 
revelation  of  its  moral  nature  from  any  supposed  pos- 
sibility of  some  better  world  made  out  of  some  fancied 
more  tractable  matter.  There  may  be  other  and  better 
worlds  than  ours,  for  aught  we  know;  and  also  this 
earth  and  our  life  liere  may  have,  unknown  to  us,  some 
useful  adaptations,  some  preparatory  service  to  render 
to  other  spheres  of  being,  very  much  as  w^e  know  that 
the  lower  orders  of  nature  minister  to  the  higher,  and 
prepare  the  way  for  their  coming.  But  in  the  midst  of 
the  mystery  of  evil  which  waits  to  be  revealed,  we  may 
be  reasonably  content  to  observe  the  indications  of  good 
intention  in  the  constitution  and  course  of  tlie  world 
as  we  find  it,  and  to  judge  whether  already,  and  within 
tlie  limits  of  it  which  we  may  measure,  nature  has  suc- 
ceeded not  only  in  evoking  life,  but  also  in  so  guiding 


MORAL   CHARACTER  IN  NATURE  129 

it  and  disciplining  it  that  on  the  whole  it  lives  to  good 
purpose  and  grows  capable  of  better  and  larger  happi- 
ness.^ We  may  apply  to  the  existing  universe,  so  far  as 
we  have  knowledge  of  it,  the  remark  concerning  the 
strawberry  which  Izaak  Walton  applied  to  his  ^'  quiet, 
innocent  recreation  "  of  angling :  "  Doubtless  God  could 
have  made  a  better  berry,  but  doubtless  God  never  did." 
We  do  not  know  that  a  better  world  possibly  could  have 
been  made ;  but  like  the  straAvberry,  which  the  angler 
picked  by  the  bank  of  the  brook,  the  world  which  God 
has  made  is  good,  and  the  goodness  of  life  is  sweet  to 
our  taste. 

It  would  lead  beyond  the  limits  of  our  immediate 
argument  from  nature  to  follow  the  signs  of  moral 
direction  towards  ends  of  higher  vital  value  in  the  life 
of  man  and  through  the  new  Christian  and  spiritual 
evolution  of  human  history.  We  may  glance,  however, 
along  this  line  of  human  development  long  enough  to 
observe  that  the  same  principle  of  beneficent  vital 
increase  obtains  in  man's  history.  We  can  grasp  with 
firmer  confidence  a  principle  which  is  seen  to  hold  good, 
up  and  down,  thi^ough  all  the  spheres  and  orders  of  the 
creation.  Direction  in  the  cell  and  direction  in  the 
world,  providence  in  the  least  and  providence  in  the 
greatest,  confirm  each  the  other,  illustrate  one  another, 

1  Mr.  Romanes  regards  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil  as  mitigated 
by  the  Darwinian  doctrine  ;  and  he  adds  this  suggestion  :  "  But  even 
here  we  ought  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  possibility  that,  if  we  could  see 
deeper  into  the  mystery  of  things,  we  might  find  some  further  justification 
of  the  evil,  as  unsuspected  as  was  that  which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  Darwin 
has  brought  to  light/'     Essays,  pp.  56-.57. 


130  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

and  disclose  the  same  motive  of  benevolence  in  which 
the  moral  order  of  the  cosmos  has  been  constituted. 

If  we  apply  to  human  history  the  same  scale  by  means 
of  which  we  have  been  measuring  evolution  in  nature, 
viz.,  that  of  increase  in  vital  values,  unmistakable  evi- 
dence of  progress  will  be  brought  out;  and  we  hold 
that  such  advance  in  the  worth  of  life  is  clear  sign  of 
the  moral  character  of  history  as  a  whole.  There  exists 
in  the  world  at  the  beginning  of  this  new  century  larger 
human  capacity  for  living,  and  more  joy  in  life  than 
existed  a  hundred  years  ago,  or  nineteen  centuries  ago 
in  the  dying  Roman  empire;  or  in  the  earlier  ages 
when  Abraham  sought  a  better  country,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went.  In  making  this  comparative  estimate 
we  do  not  overlook  the  pessimists,  or,  passing  them 
by,  as  perhaps  it  is  always  best  to  do,  we  would  not 
ignore  the  too  familiar  facts  which  show  how  hard 
and  impoverished  life  must  still  be  for  large  numbers 
of  mankind.  Nevertheless,  this  comparative  estimate, 
measured  by  the  scale  of  vital  values,  holds  true  of  our 
human  history,  as  it  does  of  the  whole  nature-process 
before  us.  Without  stopping  to  argue  in  full  the  posi- 
tion that  history  has  been  on  the  whole  progressive  in 
human  capacity  for  living  and  in  human  joy  of  living, 
the  advancement  may  be  put  before  us  by  two  single 
points  of  comparison.  We  refer  for  one  to  the  power 
of  the  rich  man  to  live  largely  and  to  enjoy  life  gen- 
erously at  the  dawn  of  this  century,  much  more  than 
was  possible  in  the  age,  let  us  suppose,  of  Croesus. 
What  good  could  Croesus  have  done  with  all  his 
wealth?     What   opportunity    for   large,    enjoyable    use 


MORAL   CHARACTER   IN  NATURE  131 

of  it  did  the  world,  so  far  as  it  was  then  evolved,  offer 
to  Croesus  ?  Not  much.  Men  did  not  know  enough  in 
his  day  to  use  wealth  to  the  best  advantage.  A  dollar 
had  little  worth  in  his  time  for  benevolent  purposes.  It 
could  not  have  been  made  to  go  far.  It  had  compara- 
tively little  value  even  for  self-enjoyment.  Croesus  of 
old  had  to  hoard  his  wealth ;  he  was  not  called  on  every 
day  of  the  year  by  numerous  solicitors  from  all  over  a 
great  world,  and  he  could  hardly  have  helped  being  a 
miser.  It  was  so  with  father  Abraham  in  his  day.  His 
flocks  multiplied,  his  herds  increased ;  but  besides  taking 
good  care  of  his  own,  how  little  opportunity  Abraham 
had  for  charity  —  what  a  narrow  world  was  his  even  for 
self -enjoyment,  or  a  rational  use  of  his  means  in  re- 
creation, art,  music,  and  a  thousand  ways  in  which  man 
now  may  himself  be  happy  and  make  others  happy.  In 
short,  the  increasing  worth  of  money  for  all  noble  uses 
is  itself  an  unmistakable  sign  of  progress. 

A  similar  comparative  estimate  in  favor  of  progress 
may  be  made  from  the  other  side  of  human  life.  Grant 
that  life  for  the  man  at  the  bottom  is  far  from  that  which 
it  should  be,  and  which  it  may  yet  be  made  to  be.  Still 
the  average  man  may  live  more  now  than  ever  before. 
It  is  not  simply  a  question  of  comparative  wages,  or 
even  of  comparative  possessions.  A  comfortable  use  of 
the  world  tends  to  increase  for  tlie  great  majority  at 
least  of  mankind.  But  more  than  this,  we  can  say 
that  almost  any  child  —  alas  !  we  may  not  yet  say  every 
child  —  but  the  many  children  of  men  are  born  in  these 
latter  days  into  a  world  wherein  life  may  become  for 
most  of  us  something  larger  in  its  outlook,  richer  in  its 


132  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

sympathies,  nobler  in  its  aims,  and  more  joyous  at  least 
in  its  struggle  and  its  hope  for  humanity,  than  it  was  in 
bygone  ages,  or  among  the  first  savage  colonies  of  men, 
or  even  within  historic  times.  On  an  ancient  Assyrian 
tablet  there  is  a  broken  line  with  but  one  word  of  it  left 
to  be  deciphered,  —  and  that  one  word  renders  that  old 
world  near  akin  to  ours ;  —  it  is  the  word.  Evil.  All 
the  generations  of  men  have  known  that  word.  In  some 
far,  bright,  future  century  —  should  there  be  unearthed 
a  buried  monument  of  the  century  just  past  as  record  of 
our  world  now  —  that  historic  word,  evil,  would  still  be 
found  written  among  its  lines  ;  but  over  it  would  be 
seen  written  in  larger  letters,  as  the  most  distinctive 
word  of  the  present  time,  that  other  word,  which  hu- 
manity now  begins  to  know  as  the  greatest  of  all, — 
even  Love. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE   BEAUTIFUL 

There  is  one  aspect  of  direction  in  nature  at  which 
we  have  not  yet  looked ;  but  we  should  miss  a  fine  sign 
of  reason  in  the  world,  if  we  should  fail  to  see  it.  It  is 
the  presence  and  the  higher  significance  of  the  beautiful 
in  nature. 

It  was  one  of  the  thoughts  of  the  profound  Pascal 
that  an  inch  or  two  more  or  less  on  Cleopatra's  nose 
would  have  altered  the  history  of  the  world.  Beauty 
certainly  has  been  one  of  the  historic  forces  ;  but  we 
shall  not  attempt  to  measure  the  influence  for  good  or 
evil  which  beauty  may  exercise  in  the  thoughts  of  men's 
hearts.  Our  present  inquiry  is  determined  by  the  scope 
of  our  argument  from  nature.  From  what  power  has 
natural  beauty  come,  and  to  what  end  has  it  been  born  in 
the  evolution  of  the  world  ?  What  energy  has  called  it 
forth,  in  what  modes  has  it  been  fashioned,  and  of  what 
character  in  the  direction  of  nature  is  its  presence  a  sign  ? 

The  Darwinian  science  seems  to  have  hit  upon  an 
easy  explanation  of  the  fair  colors  and  variegated  adorn- 
ments of  many  flowers  and  much  animal  life.  We  look 
first  then,  in  our  inquiry  concerning  the  significance  of 
the  beautiful,  to  this  account  of  its  origin  and  use.  It 
is  the  utilitarian  theory  of  it. 

133 


134  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

The  prevalence  of  the  beautiful  in  living  nature  is  re- 
garded as  due  simply  to  the  fact  that  its  cultivation 
has  been  found  to  pay.  It  is  true  that  in  many  inter- 
esting instances  among  the  flowers  and  the  birds  we 
may  perceive  some  good  use  in  their  beauty.  Some  lines 
or  colors  which  we  regard  as  beautiful,  have  been  of  vital 
advantage  to  the  plant  or  the  animal,  and  consequently 
they  have  been  naturally  selected  and  enhanced.  It  is  not 
the  least  of  the  obligations  which  all  students  of  nature 
owe  to  Mr.  Darwin,  that  he  opened  up  in  this  manner 
an  almost  unsuspected  way  of  approach  to  the  realm  of 
the  beautiful.  He  was  the  first  to  give  a  clear  scientific 
account  of  a  method  of  the  manufacture  of  the  garment 
of  beauty  which  nature  seems  never  weary  of  weaving. 
There  are  three  natural  factors  which  are  supposed  to 
be  busy  in  its  production. 

One  of  these  causes  of  natural  beauty  is  protective 
coloring,  including  warning  colors  and  mimicry.  We 
need  hardly  do  more  than  mention  this  factor.  Every 
woodsman  knows  the  difticulty  of  distinguishing  many 
kinds  of  game  from  the  grasses  and  foliage  amid  which 
they  hide ;  the  common  woodcock,  for  example,  repro- 
duces the  pale  ashy  colors  of  the  fallen  leaves  so  "  mingled 
with  the  dark  browns  and  warm  yellows  of  the  fresher 
leaves "  that  the  adornment  of  the  woodcock  answers 
finely  the  purposes  of  concealment.  So  also  birds  which 
inhabit  the  Egyptian  deserts  are  so  shaded  down  and 
mottled  that  they  are  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
sands  and  stones,  where  they  safely  find  their  hiding- 
place  even  under  the  glare  of  the  sun.  Fine  pencillings 
and  shadings,  and  richly  blended  hues  in  the  diversified 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE   OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL    135 

plumage  of  the  birds  have  resulted  apparently  from 
their  protective  value  under  the  law  of  natural  selection. 
The  useful  mimicry  of  color  is  carried  to  an  exquisite 
perfection  among  the  insects.  There  are  beetles  which 
are  like  drops  of  dew ;  and  butterflies  which  resemble 
tropical  leaves  so  closely  that  no  two  of  them  correspond 
exactly  in  their  tracings,  any  more  than  the  leaves  do, 
while  some  of  them  mimic  even  the  marks  upon  the 
leaves  produced  by  the  ravages  of  insects  or  of  vegetable 
moulds.^ 

Another  factor  in  the  production  and  diversification 
of  natural  beauty  Mr.  Darwin  found  in  sexual  selection. 
In  this  may  be  included  the  use  of  color  and  markings 
and  distinctive  bird-notes  for  purposes  of  recognition. 
The  facts  which  have  been  adduced  in  evidence  of  this 
reason  for  the  beautiful,  belong  to  the  romance  of  animal 
life.  "All  naturalists,"  Mr.  Darwin  remarked,  "who 
have  closely  attended  to  the  habits  of  birds,  whether  in 
a  state  of  nature  or  under  confinement,  are  unanimously 
of  opinion  that  the  males  take  delight  in  displaying  their 
beauty."  We  are  reading  here  a  chapter  in  the  natural 
history  of  courtship.  For  charmed  by  some  splendid 
top-knot,  or  fluttering  and  fantastic  motion,  puffing  out 
of  feathers  of  neck  and  breast,  or  ornamented  comb, 
graceful  plumes,  elegant  ear-tufts,  beautiful  ruffs  and 
collars,  spots  of  gold,  or  brilliant  contrasts  of  plumage, 

1  See  Wallace,  Darwinisvi,  pp.  190  sq.,  for  instances.  In  the  Natural 
History  Museum  at  South  Kensington,  London,  there  is  an  interesting 
collection  to  illustrate  protective  coloration  ;  some  insects  resemble  so 
neatly  the  leaves  and  twigs  that  one  has  to  look  sharply  to  distinguish 
them.  One  may  notice  for  example  the  exact  resemblance  of  Umhonia 
spinosa  to  a  rose  thorn. 


136  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

the  female  bird,  so  our  inquisitive  science  has  found  out, 
will  make  her  choice  of  a  mate,  and  by  her  happy 
choice  tend  to  perpetuate  in  her  nestlings  the  beauty 
which  first  won  her  little  bird-heart.  We  are  not  un- 
willinof  to  listen  to  a  science  which  introduces  us  to 
courtships  and  loves  of  the  birds  so  seemingly  human 
in  their  methods,  as  well  as  in  their  crosses  and  diffi- 
culties ;  — methods  of  bird-mating,  at  least,  which  involve 
parties  on  the  lawn,  dances  and  antics,  and  meetings  at 
times  in  quiet  secluded  spots,  during  which  all  the  arts 
of  attraction  are  practised,  and  in  the  course  of  which 
some  birds  will  become  so  absorbed  that  they  will 
appear  almost  blind  and  deaf,  and  others  will  grow 
quite  frantic,  while  rivalries  not  infrequently  end  in 
battles ;  and  likewise  from  such  scenes,  in  too  close 
correspondence,  perhaps,  to  our  human  ways,  some  male 
birds  will  retire  to  some  sequestered  place  in  gloomy 
disappointment,  and  some  females,  unable  to  make  a 
choice  amid  so  many  offered  attractions,  will  fly  away  to 
dwell  alone  as  spinsters  in  forlorn  habitations.  Perhaps 
from  our  knowledge  of  human  fashions  we  may  find  the 
scepticism  of  Mr.  Wallace  more  probable  when  he  raises 
the  question  whether  the  individual  tastes  of  hundreds 
of  successive  generations  of  female  birds  would  not 
necessarily  have  tended,  not  to  the  definite  patterns 
of  beautiful  colors  and  markings  which  nature  has  to 
show,  but  rather  to  confusion  of  colors,  and  the  pro- 
duction of  a  speckled  and  piebald  beaut}^^ 

A  third  factor,  on  which  with  Darwin,  Mr.  Wallace 

1  Mr.    Wallace  rejects  as   unproved  Darwin's  snp])osition   of    Sexual 
Selection  as  a  cause  of  color  development.     Darwinism,  Ch.X. 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL     137 

and  most  naturalists  lay  much  emphasis,  is  the  use  of 
color  in  the  cross-fertilization  of  plants.  This  cannot 
be  better  put  than  in  Mr.  Darwin's  own  summary  of  his 
inductions.  ''Flowers,"  he  says,  "rank  amongst  the 
most  beautiful  productions  of  nature  ;  but  they  have 
been  rendered  conspicuous  in  contrast  with  the  green 
leaves,  and  in  consequence  at  the  same  time  beautiful, 
so  that  they  may  be  easily  observed  by  insects.  I  have 
come  to  this  conclusion  from  finding  it  an  invariable 
rule  that  when  a  flower  is  fertilized  by  the  wind  it  never 
has  a  gayly  colored  corolla.  Hence  we  may  conclude 
that,  if  insects  had  not  been  developed  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  our  plants  would  not  have  been  decked  with 
beautiful  flowers,  but  would  have  produced  only  such 
poor  flowers  as  we  see  on  our  fir,  oak,  nut  and  ash  trees, 
on  grasses,  spinach,  docks,  and  nettles,  which  are  all 
fertilized  through  the  agency  of  the  winds."!  This  is 
certainly  the  best  apology  for  the  existence  of  insects 
that  could  be  imagined. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  utilitarian  theory  of  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  beautiful  in  living  nature.  It 
is  supported  by  a  large  number  of  observations,  it  fits 
into  many  curious  adaptations,  and  its  partial  truth,  at 
least,  cannot  be  denied.  This  theory,  however,  has  re- 
ceived since  Darwin  much  criticism  from  closer  investi- 
gations ;  and  the  larger  question  has  not  yet  in  any  of  the 
writings  of  the  evolutionists  been  argued  out,  whether 
it  is  a  sufficient  theory  of  the  beautiful.  Is  it  co-ex- 
tensive with,  can  it  be  so  stretched  as  to  comprehend 
all  the  phenomena  of  beauty  in  nature  ?     The  problem 

1  Origin  of  Species, 


138  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

thus  presented  is  more  fundamental  than  the  questions 
which  are  presented  by  mere  criticism  of  the  details  in 
Mr.  Darwin's  account  of  the  natural  origin  of  the 
beautiful  among  the  flowers  and  the  birds.  Granting 
that  beauty  is  shown  to  be  of  some  use  in  the  struggle 
of  existence,  vegetable,  animal,  and  human  too,  we 
would  inquire  further  and  more  deeply,  whether  the 
utility  of  it  affords  a  sufficient  principle  of  beauty? 
Admitting,  as  far  as  the  facts  warrant,  that  nature  has 
made  good,  economic  use  of  beauty  for  the  mainte- 
nance and  victory  of  life,  does  this  utility  of  it  ac- 
count for  all  of  nature's  superabundant  beauty?  Or 
must  we  lind  some  love  of  it  for  its  own  sweet  sake 
near  to  nature's  heart?  What  other  account  of  it 
can  you  give?  said  a  botanist,  when  asked  a  question 
about  the  violets ;  but  let  us  first  see  how  far  his 
knowledge  of  the  use  of  beauty  among  the  flowers 
may  go. 

We  may  mention  several  particulars  which  show  that 
even  on  the  field  where  beauty  is  of  apparent  use,  never- 
theless all  of  the  beautiful  cannot  readily  be  explained 
by  its  utility. 

For  one  thing,  it  does  not  render  sufficient  account 
of  those  lines,  markings,  and  hues,  which  in  the  struct- 
ure of  many  vegetal  and  animal  forms  have  no  apparent 
or  imaginable  relation  to  tlie  uses  of  life.  For  instance, 
the  fine  proportions  in  the  architecture  of  the  shells 
of  those  minute  forms  of  life,  the  Foraminifera^  or 
the  sculi)turings  of  the  Vorticellidce,  are  not  easily  to  be 
explained  by  any  advantage  possibly  to  be  gained  by 
sucli  artistic  beauty;  for  in  such  life  "there  is  hardly 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL     139 

eye  to  see  or  sex  to  be  attracted.^  This  would  seem 
especially  to  be  true  of  forms  of  perfect  loveliness 
which  naturalists  in  their  dredgings  have  brought  to 
light  from  darkest  depths  of  the  ocean.  We  may  see  — 
our  human  eyes  the  first  to  behold  them  —  bits  of  coral 
which  for  ages  have  been  hidden  nineteen  hundred 
fathoms  deep  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  the  patterns  of 
which  are  woven  as  delicately  as  the  finest  lace.^  One  of 
these  specimens  of  coral,  which  was  brought  up  from  the 
depths  on  the  voyage  of  the  "  Challenger,"  resembles 
(as  a  child  to  whom  I  pointed  it  out  exclaimed)  a  rose 
window ;  there  was  appearance  as  of  a  star  at  the  centre 
of  it,  and  fine  tracery  of  radiating  lines,  and  a  circular 
pattern  of  shadings  around  its  border ;  —  a  cathedral 
window  might  have  been  drawn  from  the  miniature 
carving  of  this  bit  of  coral,  upon  which  in  its  secret 
of  beauty  no  light  had  ever  shone.  Of  what  conceiv- 
able use  to  it  was  its  perfection  of  design?  Similarly 
among  fossil  forms  ornamental  lines  have  been  carried 
out,  as  Professor  Shaler  from  his  studies  of  them  de- 
clares, "far  beyond  the  limits  of  utility."  He  is  so 
impressed  with  the  ''  fashion  motive "  of  their  adorn- 
ment, that  he  compares  it  to  "  the  work  of  the  human 
fancy."  ^ 

Various  pigments  and  optical  hues  occur  throughout 
the  entire  range  of  the  lower  organic  realm.  Bacteria 
show  '^  often  surprisingly  brilliant  colors."  Algce  con- 
tain varied  pigments  :  the  "  reddish-pink  fronds  "  of  one 

1  Sandeman,  Problems  of  Biologi/,  pp.  131-132. 

2  Leptopenus  Discus. 

3  The  Individual,  pp.  315-317. 


140  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

species  of  them  we  may  often  find  "cast  up  on  the 
seashore  during  the  summer  months ; "  the  translucent 
hues  of  sea-anemones,  jelly-fish  and  corals  are  well 
known ;  not  so  familiar,  but  possessing  attractive  beauty 
to  those  who  know  them,  are  the  colors  of  a  large  group 
of  worms  {Nemertea),  One  who  has  made  a  study  of 
them  writes,  "The  gradation  of  color  in  the  various 
parts  of  a  single  specimen "  is  "  so  subtle  that  enthu- 
siasm as  well  as  skill  is  necessary  in  the  artist  who  sets 
himself  to  the  task  of  faithful  delineation." 

The  color-scheme  is  thus  seen  to  be  part  and  essence 
of  the  order  of  nature  ;  beauty  is  one  of  nature's  original 
and  constitutive  notes.  Color  is  elementary,  structural, 
physiological ;  it  is  an  essential  element  of  life,  before 
ever  it  becomes  of  use  in  the  struggle  for  better  life. 
In  other  words,  color  has  vital  value  before  it  gains 
survival  value. 

Autumnal  coloration,  likewise,  has  no  direct  relation 
to  use ;  it  is  not  in  itself  advantageous  to  the  trees. 
It  may  possibly  be  regarded  as  an  incidental  result  of 
a  vegetative  process  which  is  advantageous  to  the  trees ; 
but  it  is  an  incident  of  beauty  which  nature  sometimes 
lavishes  upon  the  forests  with  a  prodigal  hand;  and 
it  is  one  of  those  extraordinary  and  superabundant 
incidents,  at  least,  of  the  creation,  wliich  it  is  difficult 
to  regard  as  the  result  solely  of  natural  selection.^ 

It  is  rightly  argued  that  if  nothing  has  become  beau- 
tiful in  the  living  world  except  where  its  beauty  has 

1  See  Miss  Newbigin's  Colour  in  Nature,  p.  66.  The  facts  summarized 
above  have  beeu  drawu  partly  from  her  pages;  many  similar  ones  might 
be  added. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL    141 

been  proved  by  the  severe  test  of  natural  selection  to 
be  useful,  then  the  beautiful  will  be  found  where  it 
is  of  use,  and  nowhere  else.  But,  as  matter  of  fact,  we 
find  beauty  existing  without  utility,  and  also  we  find  less 
conspicuous  and  less  variegated  forms  succeeding  despite 
their  lack  of  beauty.  So  the  facts  of  nature  seem  to  be 
larger  than  this  theory.  For  example,  many  conspicuous 
flowers  are  not  dependent  upon  the  visits  of  insects  for 
their  cross-fertilization,  so  that  in  such  cases  they  cannot 
have  gained  their  bright  colors  as  attractions  for  the 
insects.  Thus  the  family  of  Asclepiadce^  it  has  been 
argued,  present  flowers  conspicuous  for  their  size, 
coloring,  and  grouping,  yet  they  are  self -fertilized ;  their 
brilliant  beauty,  therefore,  must  be  due  to  other  causes 
than  any  possible  use  of  it  for  fertilization  through  its 
attractiveness  to  insects.  Upon  this  theory  it  is  a  use- 
less and  purposeless  ornamentation.  Besides  this,  the 
ornamentation  of  many  parts  of  plants  seems  to  have 
no  known  or  conceivable  utility  for  the  life  of  the  plant, 
any  more  than  the  carving  of  a  sword-handle  has  to 
the  purposes  for  which  a  sword  is  made.  In  many 
blossoms  there  are  subtle  markings,  delicate  shades  and 
hues,  marginal  lines,  and  spots  of  color,  which  are  of  no 
obvious  help  in  guiding  the  insects  to  their  honey,  but 
which  are  the  perfection  of  their  beauty  to  our  eyes. 
Conspicuousness  rather  than  harmonized  color,  brilliancy 
rather  than  loveliness  would  seem  to  be  best  adapted  to 
the  uses  of  cross-fertilization.  The  parts  of  plants  upon 
which  insects  do  not  alight,  have  not  been  left  untouched 
by  nature's  artistic  grace ;  the  under  sides  of  many 
leaves   show  perfect  finish;  and  the  veins  are  woven 


142  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

into  exquisite  patterns,  while  even  the  stems  are  often 
sculptured  and  adorned  with  a  beauty  all  their  own  ;  — 
and  what  shall  we  say  more  of  the  richness  of  some  of 
the  foliage  plants,  or  the  grace  of  the  wind-loving  reeds 
and  grasses,  or  the  poetry  of  the  rhythmic  ferns,  or  the 
aspect  of  gentleness  lent  to  the  strength  of  the  rocks  by 
the  softness  of  the  mosses,  and  the  fine  etchines  of  the 
lichens ;  —  as  though  nature,  hiding  an  artist's  instinct 
ever  in  her  heart,  could  touch  nothing  without  adorning 
it,  and  over  the  primeval  stones  and  granite  strength 
of  her  architecture  would  throw  suggestion  of  the 
coming  bloom  and  fragrance  even  in  her  earliest  vege- 
table moulds  and  fungi.^ 

An  instance  has  been  cited  of  seemingly  disinterested 
beauty  —  beauty  existing  not  for  use,  but  for  its  own 
pure  sake  —  in  the  common  violet.  A  great  variety  of 
plants  possess  two  kinds  of  flowers,  the  one  conspicuous, 
and  the  other  inconspicuous.  The  cleistogamous,  in- 
conspicuous blossoms  appear  among  the  violets  during 
the  summer  and  autumn  when  all  the  more  brilliant 
flowers  are  gone.  "  The  one  flower,  the  conspicuous 
one,  which  our  children  delight  to  gather  in  the  spring- 
time, has  everything  in  its  favor  —  honey  and  a  beauty 
of  color  and  of  smell  that  has  passed  into  a  pro- 
verb —  and  it  opens  its  blue  wings  to  the  visits  of  the 
insect  tribe  in  the  season  of  their  utmost  jollity  and 

1  Many  curious  instances  of  colorin^^  which  it  is  difficult  to  explain 
solely  Ijy  the  principle  of  natural  selection  are  noticed  by  recent  investi- 
gators ;  e.  g.,  see  Kassowitz,  Allcjemeine  Biologie,  B.  ii.  ss.  64,  72,  ff. 
Weidemann's  Annalen  Farhenphotographie,  48,  2 ;  Centralblatt  fiir  Phi/- 
siologie,  1895,  s.  666.  The  effect  of  light  in  producing  coloration  needs 
to  be  more  carefully  studied. 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   THE   BEAUTIFUL     143 

life.  The  other  has  everything  against  it;  it  is  in- 
conspicuous, scentless,  ugly,  and  closed.  And  yet  which 
succeeds  the  better?  which  produces  the  more  seed? 
The  cleistogamous,  and  not  the  brilliant  floAver;  the 
victory  is  with  ugliness,  and  not  with  beauty."  ^  So  it 
has  been  argued ;  but  a  botanist  replied.  Though  the 
fact  be  truly  stated,  it  is  not  fairly  argued.  The 
victory  in  the  fertilization  of  the  violets  and  some  other 
flowers  is  neither  with  beauty  nor  with  ugliness,  but 
rather  with  that  kind  of  blossom  which  at  any  partic- 
ular time  was  best  adapted  to  its  environment.  He 
would  proceed  to  inform  us  that  nature  in  this  respect 
has  shown  great  adaptability ;  that  she  has  two  ways 
of  maintaining  her  plant  life  according  to  circum- 
stances; and  that  these  ways  alternate  as  the  one  or 
the  other  may  be  most  useful  in  any  place  or  time  ; 
that  some  Alpine  plants,  for  instance,  wdiich  lower  down, 
where  insect  life  abounds,  have  conspicuous  blossoms, 
and  rely  upon  them  for  fertilization,  will  manage  to 
survive  in  higher  altitudes,  where  insect  visitations  are 
not  sufficient,  by  adopting  the  alternate  method  of 
self-fertilization  within  their  closed  and  ugly  blossoms. 
Mr.  Wallace  has  dwelt  upon  this  power  of  some  plants 
to  change  their  habits  according  to  their  needs .^ 
Heeding  whatever  the  botanist  may  observe  concern- 

1  Mr.  Justice  Fry,  Cont.  Rev.  vol.  xxxvi,  1879,  p.  581. 

2  The  suggestion  might  also  be  yeutured  that  the  highly  colored 
blossoms  have  some  lingering  utility  as  means  of  the  occasional  rejuve- 
nescence of  the  violets ;  as  at  times  some  of  them  are  fertilized  and  fresh 
seeds  produced.  Mr.  Wallace  explains  the  heightened  colors  of  many 
Alpine  flowers  as  a  consequence  of  their  need  of  greater  conspicuousness 
to  attract  the  few  wandering  butterflies  when  the  bees  are  less  abundant. 
Nat.  Set.  p.  403. 


144  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

ing  the  utilities  of  these  different  kinds  of  flowers,  we 
touch  a  deeper  question,  which  such  arguing  does  not 
reach;  and  possibly  there  may  lie  here  a  hint  also  of 
simpler  truth  of  beauty  than  we  might  suspect.  For 
let  us  ask  in  reply  again,  why  has  nature  been  so 
prodigal  as  to  adopt  this  double  mode  o£  fertilization, 
and  even  under  conditions  where  the  cheaper  method 
of  self-fertilization  might  suffice,  does  she  develop  the 
more  costly  method  of  cross-fertilization  by  insect  visi- 
tations to  blossoms  upon  which  color  has  been  so 
lavished  ?  Why  does  nature  cling  to  this  more  expensive 
ornamental  way,  and  not  give  it  up  until  seemingly 
she  has  to  throw  aside  her  sweetly  scented  flowers,  and 
return  to  her  closed  and  common  blossoms  only  where 
among  the  too  crowded  fields  her  violets  cannot  other- 
wise keep  up  their  frail  existence,  or  where  her  plants 
must  survive  among  the  severities  of  the  Alpine  frosts  ? 
Why  did  nature  ever  care  to  strike  at  all  into  this  much 
more  costly  way  of  beauty  ?  Plant  life  could  have  been 
more  cheaply  maintained ;  —  why  the  extravagant  way  ? 
The  puzzling  complexity  of  this  problem  is  admitted 
by  Mr.  Wallace ;  but  he  argues  that  the  two  methods  of 
self-fertilization  (by  means  of  plain,  economical  flowers), 
and  of  cross-fertilization  (by  means  of  conspicuous  more 
extravagant  blossoms),  are  both  necessary  under  varying 
conditions  to  the  "vigor  and  fertility"  of  plants.^  But 
even  upon  his  own  statement  of  facts,  cross-fertilization, 
with  its  "  highly  complex  modes,"  and  "  so  much  cost 
of  structural  modification,"  seems  often  to  be  a  need- 
lessly extravagant  method  of  nature.     It  is  difliculfc  for 

1  Darwinism,  pp.  321  sq. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL    145 

the  most  enterprising  advocate  of  natural  selection  to 
show  that  the  beauty  lavished  upon  the  flowers  is  every- 
where good  economy.  Nature  seems  to  proceed  like  a 
happy  spendthrift  of  beauty,  as  she  scatters  bright  colors 
among  the  flowers  of  the  fields.  It  would  seem  as  if 
beauty  nature  must  have  and  keep  at  almost  any  price, 
save  the  very  life  of  the  plant.  It  seems  as  if  nature 
would  cling  to  her  beautiful  children  with  all  her  heart. 
Poetry  this,  it  will  be  said,  bat  not  science ;  but  let  us 
look  further  and  see. 

The  inadequacy  of  Darwin's  theory  of  the  origin  of 
beauty  from  its  use  —  the  partial  truth  only  of  it  —  appears 
further  from  some  curious  experiments  which  have  lately 
been  very  scientifically  made  from  the  other  side  of  the 
matter,  wdiich  Mr.  Darwin  neglected,  that  is,  from  the  in- 
sect side  of  the  question.  Insects  have  had  their  eyes  ex- 
amined lately,  and  their  power  of  appreciating  the  beau- 
tiful has  been  carefully  tested.  To  some  extent  these 
experiments  confirm  the  Darwinian  view  that  conspicu- 
ous blossoms  attract  the  visits  of  the  insect  youth,  as 
Paley  calls  them.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  these  ex- 
aminations of  the  insects'  poAvers  of  vision  show  the 
inadequacy  of  this  theory  of  the  evolution  of  the  beauty 
of  the  flowers.  For  they  do  not  have  eyes  good  enough 
to  distinguish  between,  and  so  to  cause  the  natural 
selection  of,  the  finer  hues  and  the  perfect  loveliness  of 
the  flowers.  Mr.  Wallace  perceived  that  the  evidence 
failed  to  show  anything  in  the  insect  sense  of  color 
corresponding  to  our  aesthetic  sense  of  it,  and  that 
consequently  there  could  be  no  choice  of  flowers  by  the 
insects  simply  for  their  beauty's  sake.     He  says  :  ''  All 

10 


146  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

that  has  been  proved  or  that  appears  to  be  probable  is, 
that  they  are  able  to  perceive  differences  of  color,  and 
to  associate  each  color  with  the  particular  flowers  or 
fruits  which  best  satisfy  their  wants." ^  To  this  extent, 
as  helping  to  produce  distinctly  marked  flowers,  or 
blossoms  of  easily  recognizable  colors,  the  selection  of 
them  by  the  insect  tribes  doubtless  has  contributed  its 
part  to  the  evolution  of  the  beautiful.  The  insects 
are  not  wholly  color  blind ;  but  there  is  much  in  the  love- 
liness of  the  simplest  flower  for  which  the  butterfly  has 
no  eye.  A  French  biologist,  Professor  Plateau,  in  recent 
contributions  gives  a  large  number  of  observations  in 
confirmation  of  his  statement  that  insects  are  not  at- 
tracted by  the  sense  of  sight.  "  Pollinating  insects," 
in  the  instances  which  he  observed,  "  made  their  way 
at  once  to  the  flowers  which  contain  the  honey  with- 
out being  visibly  guided  by  the  showy  organs  "  of  the 
plants  ;  ''  wliile,  if  these  are  removed,  it  does  not  appear 
to  make  any  material  difference  in  the  number  of 
insects  which  visit  the  inflorescence."  ^  This  observer 
concludes  that  color  is  not  the  primary  factor  in  attract- 
ing insects  to  flowers.  "  Although  flowers  are  un- 
doubtedly seen  by  insects  from  a  distance,  either  from 
their  color  or  from  some  other  contrast  with  their 
surroundings,  when  they  once  reach  the  flowers,  it  is 
perfectly  indifferent  to  them  Avhat  their  color  may  be  — 
blue,  red,  yellow,  green,  or  white  —  if  they  differ  from  one 
another  in  no  other  respect."     Indeed  pungent  odors 

1  Darivinism,  p.  336. 

2  Mem.   Soc.  Zoo/.,  France,  xi,  1898,  pp.  339-375;  xii.  1899,  pp.  336- 
370,  see  Jour.  Royal  Mic.  Soc,  1899,  p.  298,  1900,  p.  319. 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL     147 

may  have  more  influence  in  leading  to  cross-fertilization 
and  to  sexual  selection  than  do  the  colors  of  flowers 
and  animals ;  as  a  male  moth  is  known  to  be  drawn 
from  an  almost  incredible  distance  to  meet  the  moth  of 
the  female  species.^ 

The  Darwinian  theory  of  the  origin  and  growth  of 
the  beautiful  simply  because  of  its  utihty,  has  failed  to 
observe  the  good  Baconian  rule  of  attention  to  negative 
instances.  It  is  true  in  part,  but  only  in  part.  It  does 
not  understand  all  tlie  loveliness  of  the  flowers,  or  the 
splendors  of  plumage  among  the  birds.  Utility,  in  a 
word,  accounts  for  some  beauty,  but  not  for  the  perfec- 
tion of  beauty  in  nature. 

How,  then,  the  botanist  may  ask  in  turn,  can  you 
account  for  the  beautiful,  if  not  on  the  principles  of 
natural  and  sexual  selection  ?  We  may  answer.  Is  there 
not  here  sign  of  some  neglected  or  unknown  factor  of 
evolution  ? 

The  inadequacy  of  natural  selection  to  account  for 
the  coloring  of  plants  and  animals,  is  perceived  by  many 
naturalists,  who  seek  for  other  and  deeper  reasons  for  its 
origin  and  development,  —  its  utilities  being  regarded 
as  incidental  and  secondary  adaptations  rather  than  as 
primary  sources  or  eflicient  causes  for  its  existence  and 
growth.  The  latest  researches  require  no  modification 
of  the  discriminating  remark  which  the  eminent  botanist. 
Professor  Asa  Gray,  made  in  1882 :  "  For  all  that  yet 
appears,  we  may  be  indebted  to  bees  for  the  beauty  of 
our  gardens  and  the  sweetness  of  our  fields,  much  as 
we  are  indebted  to  the  postman  for  our  letters.     Corre- 

1  Shaler,  opus  cit.,  p.  127, 


148  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

spondence  would  flag  and  fail  without  him ;  but  the 
instrument  is  not  the  author  of  the  correspondence."  ^ 
Color  is  recognized  by  many  recent  investigators  as 
something  more  closely  interwoven  with  evolution  than 
the  mere  utilitarian  theory  of  it  had  imagined.  Color 
is  a  structural  fact;  there  is  a  physiological  line  of 
beauty ;  the  whole  color-scheme  of  nature  needs  to  be 
studied  anew  in  its  primary  significance  as  an  orig- 
inal and  constitutive  factor  in  evolution.  A  potency 
and  power  of  coloration  is  thought  by  some  to  be  an  in- 
herent property  of  protoplasm ;  while  its  development 
throughout  nature  is  due  to  these  inherent  properties 
and  the  stimuli  of  external  conditions,  such  as  heat 
and  warmth.  There  is  an  order  in  the  development  of 
nature's  color-scheme,  independent  of  its  use  to  life,  — 
an  order  which  is  definite  and  predetermined  in  the 
constitution  of  matter.^  If  we  regard  the  universe  with 
the  Platonic  philosophers  as  a  divine  idea,  we  should 
be  true  to  our  physiological  knowledge  of  the  develop- 
ment of  fair  colors,  if  we  should  say  that  the  beautiful 
is  inherent  in  the  idea,  and  that  its  manifestation  is 
revelation  of  the  divine  idea  in  one  of  its  essential  and 
eternal  elements. 

The  subordinate  role  of  natural  selection  in  the  pro- 
duction of  protective  coloring  is  further  indicated  by 
the  larger  influence  which  recent  students  are  inclined 
to  attribute  to  the  photographic  sensitiveness  of  organic 
substances,  by  means  of  which,  as  upon  a  photographic 

1  Con.  Rev.  vol.  xH.  p.  606. 

2  See  Simroth's  view  as  given  by  Miss  M.  I.  Newbigin,  Colour  in  Nature ; 
his  paper  Ueher  die  einfachen  Farhen  im  Thierreic/i  was  published  in  the 
Biol.  CentraJhl.  xvi  (1890),  pp.  33-51. 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL     149 

plate,  an  organism  may  reproduce  on  its  surface  the 
colors  of  its  surroundings.  Thus  it  is  suggested  that 
"  a  caterpillar  may  be  like  its  environment,  because  its 
skin  photographs  that  environment  by  means  of  the  sen- 
sitive compounds  of  its  own  tissues."  ^ 

Furthermore  we  urge  if  the  utilitarian  theory  of 
beauty  proves  thus  to  be  inadequate  even  on  the  single 
limited  field  in  whicli  the  beautiful  may  be  seen  to  min- 
ister to  the  useful,  this  theory  of  it  breaks  down  utterly 
wlien  we  survey  the  whole  extent  and  superabundance 
of  the  beautiful  throughout  nature.  It  has  no  possible 
application  to  a  vast  number  of  forms  and  arrangements 
on  the  earth  and  in  the  sky  Avhich  give  to  us  the  im- 
pression of  beauty.  We  must  seek  further  for  the 
explanation  of  this  universal  tendency  to  the  beautiful 
in  the  natural  world.  We  find  beauty  manifested  in 
the  structural  lines,  involved  in  the  elemental  group- 
ings, and  abounding  everywhere  through  all  the  orders 
of  the  creation.    Nature,  it  would  seem,  even  in  her 

1  Miss  Newbigiu,  ojms  cit.  p.  312.  See  Wiener,  Farbetiphotogi-aphie 
diirch  Korperfarben,  etc.  Ann.Phi/s.  u.  Chem.  Iv  (1895),  pp.  225-281.  Also 
Eimer,  Organic  Evolution,  pp.  142  sq.  Einier  holds  that  a  color-adapta- 
tiou  may  be  produced  Avithout  any  selection  through  nerve  stimulation 
—  stimulative  coloring.  An  excellent  summary  of  our  present  knowl- 
edge as  well  as  ignorance  of  the  causes  and  methods  of  coloration  in 
nature,  is  to  be  found  in  Miss  Newbigin's  book  on  Colour  in  Nature, 
Loudon,  John  Murray,  1898.  It  contains  a  trenchant  criticism  of  the 
relation  of  facts  to  theories,  concluding  with  these  words,  which  are  well 
worth  quoting :  "  In  spite  of  the  fluency  with  which  so  many  people  talk 
of  the  meaning  of  color  in  organisms,  the  subject  is  as  incomplete  on 
the  theoretical  as  on  the  physiological  side.  It  seems  reasonable  to 
believe  that  the  two  deficiencies  are  related,  and  that  a  little  more 
physiology  will  arm  the  theorists  with  better  weapons.  In  the  mean- 
time, we  cannot  end  a  book  on  Color  more  fitly  than  by  an  appeal  for 
more  facts." 


150  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

elements  cannot  help  being  beautiful.  In  her  first 
motions  she  follows  lines  of  beauty.  Nature  is  con- 
stituted in  beauty.  Consider  for  example  the  symme- 
try and  grace  of  her  least  visible  molecular  combinations. 
If  you  have  watched  in  the  microscopic  field  the  pro- 
cesses of  crystallization,  you  will  have  beheld  even 
there  a  primal  revelation  of  beauty.  In  the  course 
of  crystallization  elemental  designs  unroll  like  a  deftly 
woven  tapestry.  There  is  beauty  in  the  formation  of 
the  mineral  salts  which  certainly  has  no  special  and 
selected  adaptations  to  their  utility,  either  to  the  crys- 
tals themselves,  or  to  their  medicinal  effects  upon  us. 
There  is  in  the  beginning  formative  beauty  —  beauty 
as  of  symmetrical  and  thoughtful  design  —  in  the  ele- 
ments of  the  world.  We  may  notice  traces  of  this 
original  artistic  tendency  of  nature  in  the  touch  of  the 
frost  upon  our  window-pane,  or  in  the  exquisite  forms 
of  the  snow-flakes  that  flutter  down  from  the  clouds. 
We  may  find  evidence  of  an  elemental  and  universal 
structural  beauty  in  the  lowest  vegetable  forms  which 
may  be  sifted  from  the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  a  pool, 
or  gathered  from  the  green  slime  on  its  surface.  A 
diatom,  that  least  thing  in  the  kingdom  of  the  plants, 
discloses  under  the  microscope  exquisite  markings  and 
shadings,  which  render  it  always  a  pleasant  thing  to 
behold.  And  the  little  thread  of  Spirogyra^  taken  from 
the  green  slime  floating  on  the  surface  of  a  dirty 
stream,  has  to  reveal  to  us  a  line  of  spiral  green,  lovely 
as  a  necklace.  No  strings  of  pearls  are  more  pleasing 
than  some  of  the  threads  and  beads  of  color  in  the 
grasses. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE   OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL     151 

Nature  is  beautiful  eveu  in  that  which  is  least.  And 
when  we  look  up  from  this  infinitesimal  finish  and  perfec- 
tion of  beauty  to  the  larger  aspects,  the  broader  masses 
of  coloration,  and  the  more  magnificent  proportions  of 
nature's  architecture,  the  same  irrepressible  and  uni- 
versal tendency  towards  the  beautiful  everywhere 
around  us  breaks  forth  into  revelation.  Day  uttereth 
it  unto  day,  and  there  is  no  voice  nor  language  of  nature 
where  its  speech  —  this  divine  word  of  beauty  —  is  not 
heard.  We  see  beauty  alike  through  the  microscope, 
the  spectroscope,  the  telescope ;  we  see  it  wherever  we 
open  our  eyes  to  look.  The  etchings,  as  of  a  skilled 
graver's  hand,  upon  microscopic  shells  answer  to  the 
sublime  symmetries,  as  of  the  great  architect's  idea,  in 
the  glories  of  a  constellation.  The  lines  and  colors 
of  the  spectrum,  as  they  may  be  spread  before  us 
through  the  prism,  are  in  harmony  with  the  revela- 
tion which  the  heavens  make  to  our  uplifted  eyes  of 
their  majestic  order.  Rounded  hills,  mountain  peaks, 
lovely  valleys,  lights  and  shadows  over  the  fields, 
splendors  of  evening  clouds,  and  the  beauty  as  of  holi- 
ness in  the  dawn,  —  all  declare  the  presence  and  the 
power  of  some  indwelling  principle  of  the  beautiful  in 
nature. 

Nor  need  the  occasional  presence  of  ugliness  give  occa- 
sion for  mistrust  of  this  universal  existence  of  the  beau- 
tiful. When  Mr.  Wallace  ^  reasons  that  because  many 
objects  are  destitute  of  beauty,  some  explanation  of  the 
ugly  in  nature  must  be  given  if  beauty  exists  for  its 
own  sake,  he  overlooks  a  key  to  the  occasional  existence 

1  Natural  Selection,  p.  1 53. 


152  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

of  ugliness  in  tliis  fair  world,  which  his  own  theory  of 
utility  might  have  supplied.  For  occasionally  the  less 
beautiful  form  may  be  the  more  useful.  The  abrupt 
turn  of  a  root  over  the  edge  of  a  rock  into  the  crevice 
wdiere  it  seeks  for  a  little  earth,  may  be  more  quickly 
advantageous  to  the  maple-tree,  which  grows  up  straight 
and  fair  from  the  mountain-brook  course,  than  would 
liave  been  a  more  graceful  curve,  such  as  its  growth 
mio-ht  have  followed  in  more  favorable  soil.  Uncouth 
forms,  and  homely  colors,  and  even  passing  manifesta- 
tions of  positive  ugliness,  as  we  look  upon  it,  may  have 
momentary  part  and  place  in  evolution,  and  conse- 
quently have  been  naturally  selected  and  kept  so  long 
as  they  were  needed.  But  the  tendency  is  always 
towards  the  beautiful.  Moreover  nature  is  never  long 
tolerant  of  ugliness.  It  manifests  everywhere  a  ten- 
dency to  soften  features  which  are  repulsive,  to  brighten 
with  a  touch  at  least  of  color  that  which  is  dull  or  drear, 
and,  when  all  else  fails,  to  bury  the  ugly  from  sight. 
As  if  to  show  her  inexhaustible  splendors,  even  over 
commonplace  landscape  nature  will  pour  a  glorifying 
light;  and  from  farm-house  door,  looking  down  the 
country  road  unmarked  by  any  loveliness  of  its  own,  the 
eye  may  behold  a  sunset  which  transfigures  all.  It  is  as 
though  nature  would  teach  us  every  day,  even  in  the 
midst  of  commonplace,  that  ugliness  is  contrary  to  her 
heart,  and  that  beauty  is  her  first  love  to  which  all  her 
forces  are  forever  faithful.  Even  her  vehement  moods 
and  her  destructive  energies,  as  well  as  her  sunbeams 
and  her  dews,  must  work  for  symmetry  and  grace,  —  the 
frost  that  silences  the  streams,  brings  to  the   winter's 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL     153 

landscape  a  new  beauty  all  its  own;  even  craters  of 
volcanic  fires  are  not  black  and  forbidding  funnels  of 
desolation  ;  the  demons  of  destruction  have  left  adorned 
with  rich  browns,  and  ochre,  and  yellows,  and  glimmer 
as  of  gold,  the  fissured  walls  of  lava  through  which 
they  hiss  and  flame.  The  destructive  forces  at  which 
Professor  Tyndall  wondered  in  almost  religious  awe  as 
he  surveyed  their  ancient  empire  from  the  lone  Alpine 
peak,  have  moulded  and  fashioned  the  Matterhorn  into 
a  shaft  of  beauty  piercing  the  clouds ;  and,  —  has  not 
John  Ruskin  taught  us  how  irrepressible  beauty  is  in 
nature,  as  with  the  artist's  unerring  eye  he  observed 
that  "  the  disintegration  of  the  mountains  under  various 
forces  has  nevertheless  taken  place  under  laws  of  fair 
curvature."  "A  rose,"  he  writes,  "is  rounded  by  its 
own  soft  ways  of  growth ;  a  reed  is  bowed  into  tender 
curvature  by  the  pressure  of  the  breeze.  ...  But 
Nature  gives  us  in  these  mountains  a  more  clear  de- 
monstration of  her  will.  .  .  .  'Growth,'  she  seems  to 
say,  '  is  not  essential  to  my  work,  nor  concealment,  nor 
softness ;  but  curvature  is :  and  if  I  must  produce  my 
forms  by  breaking  them,  the  fracture  itself  shall  be  in 
curves.  If,  instead  of  dew  and  sunshine,  the  only 
instruments  I  am  to  use  are  the  lightning  and  the  frost, 
then  their  forked  tongues  and  crystal  wedges  shall 
still  work  out  my  laws  of  tender  line.  Devastation  in- 
stead of  nurture  may  be  the  task  of  all  my  elements, 
and  age  after  age  may  only  prolong  the  unrenovated 
ruin;  but  the  appointments  of  typical  beauty  which 
have  been  made  over  all  creatures  shall  not  therefore  be 
abandoned;  and  the  rocks  shall  be  ruled,  in  their  per- 


154  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

petual  perishing,  by  the  same  ordinances  that  direct  the 
bending  of  the  reed  and  the  blush  of  the  rose.'  "  ^ 

What  then  is  the  full  and  sufficient  interpretation  of 
the  beautiful  in  nature  ?  What  does  its  natural  evolu- 
tion signify?  We  answer:  It  is  from  reason  and  for 
reason.  It  is  expression  of  reason  to  reason.  It  is  reve- 
lation of  the  Intelligence  that  thinks  it  and  loves  it,  to 
the  mind  in  us  which  may  perceive  it  and  delight  in  it. 
This,  and  nothing  less,  is  its  message  and  its  meaning. 
Our  sciences  may  trace  the  laws  of  its  unfolding ;  our 
biology  to  a  certain  extent  may  find  the  method  of  its 
evolution.  But  beauty  is  a  perpetual  revelation  of  in- 
telligence to  intelligence.  The  principle  of  beauty, 
wrought  into  the  elements  of  nature,  is  one  of  the 
ruling  ideas  of  the  world.  The  tendency  of  nature 
everywhere  to  break  forth  and  to  blossom  into  beauty, 
is  one  of  the  leading  characters  of  evolution  which  in- 
dicate its  rational  and  moral  direction. 

We  have  left,  it  may  be  said,  one  whole  side  of  the 
great  argument  from  the  naturally  beautiful  thus  far 
untouched — the  physiological  side  of  it.  How,  it  may 
be  asked,  is  our  own  aesthetic  sense,  our  perception  and 
delight  in  beauty,  to  be  explained  ?  May  not  that  have 
had  its  origin  in  mere  utility  ?  May  not  our  sense  of 
the  beautiful  be  itself  an  acquired  adaptation  of  our- 
selves to  our  surroundings  ?  May  not  beauty  in  our 
apprehension  of  it  be  after  all  a  quite  simple  physiolog- 
ical affair?  So  some  writers  would  tell  us;  as  one 
author,  for  instance,  calmly  assures  us  that  our  sense  of 
the  aesthetically  beautiful   is    to  be  regarded   as  "that 

1  Modern  Painters,  iv,  §  25. 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL    155 

which  affords  the  maximum  of  stimulation  with  the 
minimum  of  fatigue  or  want  in  processes  not  directly 
connected  with  vital  functions,"  —  a  perfectly  natural 
explanation  of  our  delight  in  the  beautiful  which  you 
might  remember  the  next  time  your  spirit  breaks  forth 
into  exultation  when  your  physiological  heart  is  panting 
as  you  climb  at  length  the  very  last  mountain  peak,  and 
gaze  around. 

Physiology  no  doubt  has  its  contribution  to  bring  to 
the  evolution  of  the  sense  of  the  beautiful.  Let  us  accept 
its  facts  also,  so  far  as  in  our  physiological  laboratories 
of  psychology  they  may  be  determined.  Our  sesthetic 
sense  has  been  evolved,  and  without  breach  of  continuity , 
from  the  lowest  organic  perception  of  light  and  sound. 
We  need  not  attempt  to  follow  up  this  development. 
That  has  been  as  yet  very  tentatively  and  imperfectly 
done.  But  so  far  as  it  has  been  carried,  it  goes  to  show 
that  the  two  sides  of  the  evolution  of  the  beautiful  —  its 
acquisition  in  nature  and  the  power  on  the  other  hand 
of  sentient  intelligent  life  to  perceive  it  —  have  run  on 
together ;  the  one  evolution  matches  the  other.  And 
the  matching  of  them  is  further  sign  of  intelligent 
direction.  Both  are  met  —  the  color  and  music  of  the 
world,  and  the  seeing  spirit  and  the  loving  heart  —  in 
nature's  final  revelation  of  the  beautiful  to  man.  It  is 
one  complete  evolution,  and  hence  its  character  as 
beautiful  has  deep  spiritual  significance.  Physiology 
has  to  do  with  the  method  or  mechanics  by  means  of 
which  the  beautiful  is  perceived  ;  it  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  reason  in  it  or  for  it. 

We   would   like   to   know   far  more  than  the   most 


156  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

skilled  physiologist  can  yet   show   us    concerning   the 
great  transformation  of  the  outer  world  in  our  conscious- 
ness.    It  has  always   been   the  enigma  of  knowledge, 
how  waves  of  sound  or  light  may  break  upon  the  shores 
of  our  human  consciousness  into  perceptions  and  delight 
in  music  and  color.     What  magician  with  potent  wand 
stands  at  the  gateAvays  of  the  senses  to  change  the  world 
of  motions  without  into  the  realm  of  forms,  fragrance, 
and  all  harmonious  sounds  within  our  consciousness? 
Such  is  the  ceaseless  miracle  of  the  transubstantiation  of 
nature  to  our  thought.     It  ceases  to  be  a  miracle  only 
when  we  recognize  it  as  the  regular  and  orderly  com- 
munication of  mind  to  mind  through  nature.     Natural 
beauty  can  be  perceived  by  the  mind  within  us  because 
it  comes  from  the  Mind  without  us.     Beauty  is  consti- 
tuted  in   mind  and  for  mind.     It  is   not  simply  that 
ethereal  waves  break  upon  the  color  purple  of  the  eye  ; 
there  would  never  be  human  sense   of   the  beautiful, 
should  the  rays  of  light  stop  in  the  eye  ;  it  is  in  the  see- 
ing mind  that  they  are  taken  up,  transmuted,  organized 
into  the  perception   and  enjoyment   of    the   beautiful. 
Beauty  has  no  existence  except  for  the  soul  that  sees  it. 
It  belongs  essentially  to  the  unseen  and  the  eternal, 
although  it  is  manifested  through  the  passing  and  the 
seen.      We   will  not  however   enter   further   into   the 
psychological  side  of  the  question,   for  the  masters  of 
philosophy  —  are    they   not   still    with   us?     And   that 
naturalist  who  has  done  so  mach  to  elucidate  and  to 
confirm  the  Darwinian  law  of  the  utility  of  beauty  in 
nature's  economy  of  life,  is  among   those  who  makes 
likewise  this   acknowledgment  in  his  interpretation  of 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THE  BEAUTIFUL     157 

it :  "  The  emotions,"  he  remarks,  "  excited  by  colors  and 
by  music  alike  seem  to  rise  above  the  level  of  a  world 
developed  on  purely  utilitarian  principles."  ^ 

Let  us  sum  up  the  course  of  thought  we  have  been 
pursuing.  The  beautiful  is  a  universal  characteristic  of 
the  natural  order.  There  is  a  tendency  towards  beauty 
in  nature.  Nature  will  be  beautiful.  Biology  shows 
how  to  some  extent  use  and  beauty  coincide.  The 
beautiful  frequently  and  in  many  ways  is  advantageous 
to  life.  Then  it  is  naturally  selected  and  enhanced. 
Natural  science  shows  partially,  at  least,  how  nature 
may  mix  her  colors ;  evolution  indicates  how  nature  may 
have  woven  her  variegated  threads  in  the  rich  garment 
of  life.  But  beauty  is  superabundant.  It  transcends 
the  uses  of  life.  It  is  elemental,  structural,  constitutive 
in  nature.  The  great  philosopher,  Kant,  said  that  our 
human  sense  of  beauty  is  a  disinterested  sense ;  we  love 
beauty  for  its  own  sake.  The  same  quality  of  disinter- 
estedness may  be  ascribed  to  the  character  of  nature 
itself  as  beautiful.  Loveliness  exists  above  all  its  uses 
for  its  own  sake.  Beauty  is  an  end  in  nature.  It  is  as 
truly  an  end  in  nature  as  life  may  be  said  to  be  an  end 
in  evolution. 

Natural  beauty  we  regard,  therefore,  as  more  than  a 
physical  feature,  it  is  a  moral  aspect  of  nature.  It  is  in 
our  perception  of  it  an  intellectual  relation.  It  is  some- 
thing revealed  not  merely  to  the  eye  of  sense  ;  it  is  per- 
ceived by  mind.  Canon  Mozley,  in  his  fine  discourse  on 
Nature^  has  justly  remarked  that  it  is  "  essential  to  the 
very  sense  and  meaning  of  natural  beauty  that  it  should 

1  Natural  Section,  p.  415. 


158  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

be  seen;"  and  ''It  is  visible  to  reason  alone."  It  is 
another  and  everywhere  manifest  sign  of  reason  to 
reason  in  the  very  structure  of  nature.  It  is  a  revelation 
in  the  eartli  and  in  the  sky  to  be  known  when  there  is  a 
human  mind  to  see  it.  The  beautiful  is  expression  of 
divinity  on  the  face  of  nature.  No  other  interpretation 
of  it  is  rational.  Any  lesser  understanding  of  it  is 
inadequate.  The  higher  interpretation  of  natural  beauty 
as  having  rational  and  spiritual  significance,  mistakes  no 
lines  of  its  evolution,  and  comprehends  any  scientific 
knowledge  of  its  utilities,  while  it  does  not  miss  the 
simple,  divine  secret  at  the  heart  of  all  the  beauty  of  the 
world.  So  through  the  gate  called  beautiful  we  may 
enter  into  the  temple  of  God. 

The  course  of  our  reasoning  would  carry  us  one  step 
farther.  The  discovery  of  a  rational  and  spiritual  prin- 
ciple of  beauty,  does  not  end  merely  in  the  realm  of 
natural  beauty.  It  binds  together  as  upon  another  con- 
tinuous principle  the  natural  and  the  moral  universe. 
This  principle  of  beauty,  likewise,  is  one  of  those  great 
principles  of  the  creation  which  reach  through  all  the 
spheres  and  which  constitute  the  unity  of  the  worlds. 
It  reaches  from  lowliest  form  to  the  highest  angelic 
glory.  There  is  one  divine  thought  and  love  of  beauty 
in  the  exquisite  lines  of  a  diatom,  the  symmetry  of  the 
crystal,  the  glory  of  the  lily,  the  hues  of  the  humming- 
birds, tlie  resplendence  of  the  sky,  the  spiritual  fairness 
of  a  human  face,  and  in  the  perfect  beauty  of  holiness 
of  the  saints  in  light. 

Of  all  beauty  in  the  natural  and  the  moral  worlds,  on 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   THE   BEAUTIFUL     159 

earth  and  in  the  heavens,  we  may  say  as  our  last  word 
of  interpretation  of  it,  and  our  highest  wisdom,  as  a 
little  child  said  when  gazing  into  the  beauty  of  an  even- 
ing sky,  "  Mother,  I  know  what  makes  it  so ;  God  gets 
beneath  it  and  shines  through  it." 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   COMING   OF   THE    INDIVIDUAL 

The  question  of  supreme  interest  to  us  concerns  our 
personal  life :  what  is  the  worth  of  our  little  individuality 
in  the  great  nature-process  ?  Is  our  self-consciousness 
only  a  passing  reflection  of  nature,  —  herself  seen  for 
a  brief  moment  in  her  own  glass ;  —  the  mirror  itself 
being  perishable,  and  the  image  falling  upon  it  appear- 
ing but  for  a  moment,  and  vanishing  as  quickly  as  it 
appeared?  Or  is  our  personal  life  nature's  dramatic 
climax,  and  in  its  worth  has  something  been  gained  of 
immortal  value?  Has  all  the  centuries'  science  any 
light  to  throw  upon  our  personal  interest  in  life  ? 

This  is  the  next  topic  in  the  order  of  our  argument. 
Following  the  positive  method  of  our  discussion,  we 
shall  turn  again  first  to  the  facts  of  the  evolution  of  in- 
dividuality, and  then  seek  to  know  better  their  mean- 
ing. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  evolution  through  its 
age-long  process  lias  tended  towards  individuality.  The 
direction  of  nature  has  been  towards  the  coming  and 
the  reign  of  the  individual.  The  whole  movement  has 
been  that  way.  At  the  present  summit  of  it,  the  in- 
dividual man  stands  out  as  its  supreme  form,  and  Avith 
his  face  uplifted  towards  some  radiant  beyond.     This 

160 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  161 

direction  of  evolution  towards  individualism  arrests 
attention  as  another  indication  of  the  character  of  it. 
How  did  the  individual  existence  come  to  be  dis- 
criminated from  the  universal  flow  of  energy  in  nature  ? 
What  have  been  the  successive  steps  in  the  separation 
of  the  individual  from  the  mass  ?  What  are  the  char- 
acteristics of  individuality?  And  what  is  the  higher 
sign  given  in  the  appearance  of  the  supreme  individual 
in  nature  —  the  sign  of  the  coming  of  man,  and  of  the 
Son  of  man?  The  old  question  of  the  prophet  we  may 
ask  again  from  a  new  scientific  point  of  view,  Who 
shall  declare  his  generation  ?  What  does  the  generation 
of  the  perfect  individual  mean? 

In  this  part  of  our  inquiry,  as  in  the  preceding 
chapters,  we  must  search  for  our  answer  with  pains- 
taking care  among  the  facts  observed,  as  we  trace 
through  evolution  a  process  of  individuation,  and  dis- 
criminate certain  successive  stages  of  it. 

One  far  away  step  towards  individuality  is  to  be 
discovered  in  the  appearance,  one  after  another,  of  the 
separate  elements  which  are  now  distinguished  in  our 
physics. 

It  used  to  be  supposed  that  these  elements  were 
created  in  the  beginning  as  distinct  things ;  but  our 
physical  science  is  now  in  close  pursuit  of  some  one 
original  form  of  matter,  from  which  the  elements  them- 
selves may  have  been  derived.  They  are  observed  to 
arrange  themselves  in  groups,  and  to  have  relations 
to  each  other  which  suggest  some  common  origin. 
According   to  our  present  speculative  physics,  nature 

11 


162  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

ill  its  distant  beginnings  was  one,  and  not  many.  It 
was  uniformity.  Yet  the  one  was  the  mother  of  the 
many.  Stirring  in  that  vast  and  void  uniformity  was 
some  principle  of  diversification.  There  was  an  in- 
herent and  primal  tendency  towards  distinctions  ;  and 
distinct  forms  became  fixed  and  permanent.  The  as- 
tronomer, Professor  Lockyer,  holds  stoutly  to  his  spec- 
ulative opinion  that  the  development  of  the  elements 
may  be  traced  among  the  stars.  In  his  latest  book 
on  Inorganic  Evolution  he  says:  "It  Avill  be  seen, 
then,  that  the  answer  to  the  question,  Do  the  stars 
show  a  progression  of  chemical  forms,  as  the  geological 
beds  show  a  progression  of  organic  forms  ?  is  clear  and 
precise.  There  is  a  progression."  ^  Other  astronomers 
might  not  share  Professor  Lockyer's  confidence  in  this 
answer;  chemical  astronomy  has  not  translated  as  yet 
all  the  lines  of  the  message  of  light  from  the  skies ;  — 
but  it  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  know  that 
evolution  now  seems  to  be  extending  its  principles  even 
into  the  realm  of  the  inorganic,  and  is  finding  evidences 
of  progress  in  the  star-dust,  and  from  the  orderly  de- 
velopment of  the  chemical  elements  of  the  worlds. 

In  such  separation  and  distinction  of  the  original 
elements,  occurred  the  first  working  of  tlie  principle  of 
individualization.  The  appearance  of  one  separate  dis- 
tinct tiling,  whether  it  were  vortex -ring,  or  atom  of 
hydrogen,  or  whatever  it  was,  marks  an  initial  step  in 
the  far  way  towards  individuality.  It  was  a  step  which, 
once  taken,  should  never  be  retraced.  More,  vastly 
more,  was  to  follow  from  it  than  could  have  been  fore- 

1  Inoryan'tc  Ecolntion,  ]).  100. 


THE   COMING   OF   THE  INDIVIDUAL  163 

seen  except  by  the  Omniscience  which  knows  the  end 
from  the  beginning.  Yet  finite  intelUgence,  now  look- 
ing back,  can  see  what  has  come  of  it ;  and,  as  we  look 
back,  all  the  age-long  course  of  increasing  individuation 
from  the  elemental  start  appears  as  one  continuous  way 
of  the  Spirit. 

A  definite  gain,  in  the  process  of  individuation,  was 
made  when  a  crystal  was  formed.  Nature  in  the  laws  of 
crystallization  strikes  clearly  and  confidently  into  the  way 
of  individualization.  For  in  the  crystal,  form  has  been 
won,  and  clear  integrity.  Crystallization  may  be  re- 
garded as  an  announcement  in  nature  of  the  future  com- 
ing of  the  kingdom  of  individuality.  It  prepares  the 
way  in  the  wilderness  of  matter  for  something  greater 
than  itself.  The  crystal  indeed  shall  decrease,  while  the 
organic  cell  shall  increase.  But  the  first  crystalline 
acquisition  in  nature  of  varied  yet  symmetrical  structure, 
permanently  fashioned,  was  a  prophetic  gain.  It  was  a 
distinct  advance  towards  something  more  excellent,  when 
the  first  crystal  in  its  perfect  symmetry  was  formed. 
No  advance  of  nature  after  the  advent  of  the  crystal 
need  seem  miraculous. 

It  has  been  a  fashion,  especially  with  theological  vital- 
ists,  to  contrast  sharply  the  course  of  crystallization  and 
the  process  of  life,  and  in  the  supposed  spiritual  interest 
of  proving  some  vital  force  to  make  the  most  of  these 
contrasts. 

It  is  true  that  the  formation  of  crystals  of  salt  is 
not  the  same  process  as  the  growth  of  living  cells. 
Differences  between  them  remain,  although  a  German 
biologist  (Butschli)  has  lately  noted  some  lines  in  the 


164  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

formation  of  crystals  of  sulphur,  which  bear  a  suggestive 
resemblance  to  some  lines  in  the  division  of  a  cell.     It 
is  true  further  that  the  laws  of  crystallization  are  not 
identical  with  the  laws  of  reproduction  of  life.     Laws 
are  never  identical  in  different  processes  in  different 
realms  of  nature.     But  it  also  holds  true  that  the  con- 
trast between  the  crystal  and  the  cell  marks  only  the 
distance  between  two  points  on  the  same  line  of  advance. 
The  least  in  the  kingdom  of  life  is  indeed  greater  than 
the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  crystallization ;  but  the 
one  prepares  the  way  for  the  other;   the  crystal   is    a 
natural  prophet  of  the  coming  cell.     It  marks  the  end 
of  the  progress  toward  individuality  in  the  inorganic 
world;  and  the  new  dispensation  of  life  is  already  at 
hand.     Nothing  more  individual,  nothing  having  more 
distinctive  character  of  its  own  than  a  diamond  has,  can 
be  produced  from  the  whole  realm   of   the   inorganic. 
Beyond  any  combination  of  molecules   in  a   nebula,  a 
star,  a  crystal,  the  process  of  individuation  cannot  be 
carried  in  a  dead  world.     A  neAV  start  must  be  made, 
and  along  some  higher  way,  —  nature  must  go  beyond 
star-dust  and  diamonds,  if  it  is  to  press  on  toward  in- 
dividuality as  a  goal  of  its  high  calling.     And,  like  all 
great  advances  in  evolution,  we  shall  learn  that  here 
also  the  new  kingdom  came  without  observation. 

The  next  approach,  beyond  the  crystals,  towards  indi- 
viduality was  made  through  the  organization  of  matter 
in  the  cell.  That ''  nursling  of  time,"  as  it  has  been  called, 
is  so  obscure  in  its  origin  that  no  science  can  tell  when  or 
where  it  had  its  birth,  nor  in  what  environment  it  was 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  165 

cradled.  Life,  so  far  as  we  may  trace  its  descent,  is 
like  Melchizedek,  without  father  or  mother;  and, 
although  it  is  of  this  material  world,  by  its  high  calling 
and  mystery  it  seems  invested  likewise  with  sacredness 
as  a  priest  of  the  most  high  God. 

We  are  not,  however,  at  this  point,  concerned  with 
the  outlying  question  of  the  ultimate  origin  of  life  ;  our 
attention  is  now  called  to  the  increase  of  individuation 
which  has  been  gained  in  the  organization  of  the  cell. 
It  is  a  unity,  as  a  crystal  is  one  clear  thing.  It  has  de- 
finite form  and  its  own  structure  ;  so  has  a  diamond  or 
a  star.  But  it  has  gained  other  properties  which  mark 
a  higher  kind  of  individualization.  It  can  maintain 
itself  even  in  the  midst  of  change.  While  the  matter 
of  it  changes,  it  abides.  It  can  also  renew  and  perpetu- 
ate itself.  It  can  reproduce  its  kind.  And,  to  quote 
again  Professor  Shaler's  apt  phrase,  it  is  educable 
matter.  We  may  do  well  to  specify  and  to  state  more 
fully  some  of  these  distinctive  vital  properties  which 
seem  to  individualize  living  forms  of  matter. 

We  enter  into  one  of  the  most  interesting  fields  of 
biological  investigation,  when  we  study  the  metabolism, 
as  it  is  called,  or  the  nutritive  and  destructive  processes 
of  living  matter.  These  are  exceedingly  complex  and  in- 
volved. A  minute  bit  of  grass,  or  a  protozoan,  feeds  itself, 
and  so  by  means  of  other  matter,  which  it  takes  in  and 
gives  out,  maintains  itself ;  but  when  we  ask,  how  ?.  we 
are  introduced  into  a  series  of  most  intricate  phenomena. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  striking  fact  that  each  different  kind 
of  cell  has  somehow  acquired  the  power  of  selecting  its 
own  food,  and  of  rejecting  or  leaving  untouched  matter 


166  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

which  it  does  not  want,  or  more  strictly  speaking  cannot 
use  for  its  maintenance  of  itself.  Some  epithelial  cells, 
for  example,  select  from  the  nutrient  material  around 
them  droplets  of  fat;  every  tissue  cell  in  our  bodies 
selects  from  the  common  nutrient  liquid,  the  blood,  cer- 
tain substances  only  for  its  use.^  If  we  seek  further 
to  investigate  the  metabolism  of  life  within  the  cell,  we 
shall  find  that  distinct,  selective  changes  occur  even  in 
that  narrow  sphere  of  vital  activities.  Some  substances 
when  taken  into  the  cell,  meeting  other  substances 
already  contained  within  it,  undergo  decomposition  and 
recomposition ;  some  of  these  products  are  cast  out  as 
useless ;  others  remain  in  the  protoplasm  of  the  cell ; 
still  others  are  passed  on  into  the  nucleus,  and  there 
undergo  further  transformations,  from  which  again  other 
substances  result.  We  perceive  what  a  complicated  pro- 
cess this  is  —  what  wheels  within  wheels  are  here. 
Imagine  your  watch  to  be  reduced  to  microscopic  di- 
mensions, yet  its  springs,  pivots,  and  wheels  all  retained 
and  kept  in  perfect  adjustment,  —  and  you  may  gain 
thereby  some  idea  of  this  wonderful  cellular  mechanism. 
But  still  further,  and  more  difficult  to  conceive,  this 
microscopic  watch  must  be  supposed  not  only  to  keep 
true  time,  but  also  to  oil  and  repair  itself,  periodically 
to  wind  itself  up,  to  keep  itself  going,  and  even  more, 
for  its  self-maintenance  to  select  whatever  it  needs  for 
its  own  repair,  and  to  cast  out  whatever  in  its  perpetual 
motion  has  been  used  up. 

Chemical  physiology  has  succeeded  in  following  and 
describing  to  some  extent  the  transformations  of  matter 

1  Verworn,  opus  cit.  527-528. 


THE  COMING   OF   THE  INDIVIDUAL  1G7 

in  the  processes  of  nutrition ;  but  the  authorities  differ 
widely  in  their  guesses  concerning  tlie  manner  and 
means  by  which  they  are  brouglit  about.  (  oncerning 
the  fact  that  certain  cells  take  up  only  certain  sub- 
stances among  all  those  available  (e.  g.  the  seeking 
of  /SpzV(?^?/r  a -threads  by  the  Vampyrella  Splrogyrce^  or 
the  selection  of  droplets  of  fat  from  the  intestinal 
contents  by  the  epithelium-cells)  the  neo-vitalist  lounge 
remarks  :  "  No  chemical  explanation  of  tliese  plu'uomena 
is  conceivable."  Yet  Verworn  maintains  that  it  is 
mechanically  as  easy  to  conceive  of  such  phenomena  as 
it  is  to  understand  other  chemical  changes.^  Whether 
or  not  the  investigators  may  ever  succeed  in  l)ring- 
ing  under  knoAvn  chemical  relations  these  marvellous, 
subtle,  and  intricate  processes  of  cell-nutrition  and 
change,  the  point,  which  we  are  making,  will  remain 
unblunted ;  it  is  sharply  to  be  put  as  f callows :  this 
inner,  self -selective,  and  self-maintaining  life  of  the 
cell  marks  a  new  kind  of  individuality.  In  whatever 
way  it  has  come  about,  its  existence  denotes  a  definite 
eain  in  nature's  movement  towards  tlie  individual.'-^ 

This  conclusion  is  further  emphasized  by  the  i)he- 
nomena  of  reproduction.  The  mother-cell  divides 
itself,  as  in  a  previous  chapter  has  been  described,  into 
two  daughter-cells.  Life  thus  reproduces  itself,  life 
multiplies  itself  by  means  of  itself.  Herein  is  a  new 
and  effectual  fact  of  individuality  on  the  earth.     If  the 

1  Opus  cit.  528. 

2  Compare  Herbert  Spencer's  rcforoiice  to  the  kinship  hetwcen  liis 
generalizatious  and  Schelling's  doctrine  that  "  Life  is  the  tendency  to  indi- 
vidualism."    Principles  of  Biologj/,  vol.  i.,  p.  178.     Appleton's  ed.  1898. 


168  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

coming  of  the  crystal  was  glorious,  the  advent  of  self- 
reproducing  life  in  the  cell  is  a  more  excellent  glory. 
The  protococcus  and  the  protamwba  are  small  and  de- 
spised, lowest  of  vegetable  beginnings  and  humblest  of 
animal  forms ;  a  drop  of  water  is  sphere  enough  for  their 
existence;  but  when  these  lowliest  of  the  children  of 
life  first  appeared,  they  were  of  greater  value  than  the 
whole  world  which  sheltered  them,  and  of  higher  signif- 
icance than  the  suns  whose  rays  may  have  called  them 
forth ;  for  they  were  heralds  of  the  world  to  come,  and 
they  prophesied  a  kingdom  of  life  and  individuality  to 
which  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  shall  be  made 
subject. 

Through  the  realm  of  life  the  way  of  individualiza- 
tion, when  once  it  has  been  gained,  runs  on  with  in- 
creasing distinctness.  As  a  next  step  we  observe  the 
clear  gain  of  animal  intelligence. 

This  great  gain  has  been  achieved  in  the  animal 
world,  this  new  distinction  of  individuality  has  been 
acquired ;  viz.,  the  sentient  power  of  using  something 
else  for  one's  self.  The  lowest  animal  by  its  sentient 
motions  renders  the  vegetable  realm  subordinate  to  itself. 
By  that  faculty  the  individual  is  seen  to  be  coming. 
Not  only  in  the  animal  kingdom  does  life  maintain  and 
reproduce  itself  blindly  as  it  seems  to  do  in  the  plant 
world;  but  this  further  power  has  been  won  by  the 
animal  of  putting  a  whole  order  beneath  it  and  making 
it  serve  itself.  The  animal  with  discriminating  ten- 
tacles seizes  and  uses  the  vegetal  for  its  own  ends.  It 
does  this  with  sentient  discrimination. 

The  different  members  of  a  species  of  animals  are 


THE    COMING   OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL  109 

not  merely  so  many  numbers  in  a  succession,  differing 
only  in  external  shape,  or  slight  measures  of  line,  and 
shades  of  color,  like  the  leaves  on  a  bough,  or  the  blos- 
soms  of    a   fruit-tree.      The    numerals    in   the   animal 
species  are  sentient  entities  ;  each  has  some  feeling  of 
its  own  life.     In  its  beginnings  indeed,  as  avc   noticed 
in  our  introductory  cliapter,  animal  sentiency  may  seem 
scarce  distinguishable   from   the  sensitiA^eness   of   some 
plants.     Irritability,    or   the    power  to   receive   and   to 
react  under  stimulation,  may  be   regarded  as  a  primal 
property  of  all  living  matter.     But  in  the  animal  order 
this    general    sensitiveness    becomes    specialized;    this 
power  is  carried  further,    and  made  more  of,  and  de- 
velops, as  animal  life  ascends  into  that  highly  organ- 
ized kind  of  sensitiveness  which  we  recognize  as  animal 
intelligence.     So  developed,  and  so  marked,  it  becomes 
the  distinctive  property  of  the  individual  animal  organ- 
ism.    It  is  animal  sentiency  as  distinguished  from  vege- 
tal sensitiveness.     It  is  physiologically  determined  by 
the  nervous  system,  with  its  localized  centres  of  reaction 
from  within  to  stimuli  from  without.     The  more  devel- 
oped and  pronounced  these  nervous  centres  are  in  any 
species,  the  more  that  species  may  be  said  to  be  individ- 
ualized.    Each  member  of  it  has  not  only  the  charac- 
ter and  habits  of  the  species  to  maintain,  l)ut  also  its 
separate  motions  and   life   to   exliil)it.     Moved   by  the 
stirring  of  its  own  life,  and  the  feeling  of  its  value,  the 
bird  of  prey,  or  the  beast  of  the  field,  seeks  to  maintain 
its  existence  in  the  hot  struggle  by  pursuit  or  by  flight ; 
it  is  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  preservation  of  the 
species,  but  for  the  preservation  of  itself,  that  the  active 


170  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

struggle  of  the  higher  animal  is  waged.  Individuality, 
indeed,  on  this  higher  animal  plane  has  not  yet  completely 
emerged  from  the  life  of  the  species ;  for  animal  sen- 
tiency  may  still  seem  to  resemble  the  sensitive  motions 
of  plants  more  nearly  than  it  approaches  the  feeling  of 
a  life  conscious  of  itself  and  its  freedom.  Nevertheless 
nature  clearly  gives  to  the  higher  animals  more  and 
more  pronounced  individual  values.  Life  in  the  highly 
organized  animal  with  its  powers  of  self-impelled  mo- 
tion, and  also  its  newly  acquired  capacity  for  suffering, 
lends  to  the  animal  much  more  individual  as  distinct 
from  specific  value.  The  acquisition  of  the  power  to 
feel  pain,  be  it  noticed,  is  part  of  the  natural  cost  of 
higher  individuahty. 

The  next  step  in  the  process  of  individuation  is 
marked  by  the  acquisition  of  personahty. 

This  gain  is  so  immense,  and,  so  far  as  we  have  his- 
torical knowledge,  so  abrupt,  that  it  seems  to  many  to 
have  been  an  entirely  new  beginning  rather  than  the 
climax  of  a  whole  process  of  evolution  before  it.  Spirit 
in  our  consciousness  of  its  free  power  is  so  unlike  any 
other  energy  in  our  observation  of  it,  that  the  two  seem 
incommensurable.  To  compare  the  one  with  the  other 
seems  like  an  attempt  to  compare  a  quality  with  a 
quantity :  we  have  no  common  term  of  measurement 
between  matter  and  spirit.  Henceforth,  it  is  said,  after 
the  coming  of  man,  the  creation  exists  in  two  kinds,  the 
material  and  the  spiritual ;  and  the  processes  and  laws 
of  the  one  cannot  be  transferred  to  the  other.  But  in 
the   first   chapter  reference   was  made  to  the  immense 


THE    COMING   OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL  171 

momentum  of  the  scientific    argument  for  the  genetic 
unity  of  nature ;  it  sweeps  us  from  our  hold  upon  the 
idea  of  any  absolute  break  in  the  one  continuous  nature- 
process.^     We  can  admit  scientifically  no  real  dualism 
in  the  evolution  of  the  existing  universe  of  persons  and 
things.     If    personality   is   eventually   found    existing 
anywhere  in  nature,  it  must  have  come  there  in  a  natu- 
ral way.     It  must  have  its  proper  and  appointed  place 
and  time  in  the  natural  order.     It  is   not   tliere   as   a 
foreign  importation,  but  as  a  native  and  an  heir,  possess- 
ing some   relation  with,  and   issuing  from,  all  that  is 
and  that  has  been   before   it.     Even  though  spirit,    as 
we  know  it  within  ourselves,  in  comparison  with  matter, 
appears   to   be   something  supernatural,   it   must   have 
come  naturally  into  its  existing  relation  with  the  mate- 
rial world.     It  may  be  transcendent,  it  may  be  supernal ; 
but  it  is  not  supra-natural,  it  is  not  contrary  to  nature. 
Personality,  rather,  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  specialization 
of   a   spiritual   element   and   energy  which  was  in  the 
beginning,  and  which  has  ever  been  pressing  to  revela- 
tion throughout  the  whole  evolution.     Personal  centres 
of  consciousness  are  so  many  points  of  specialization  of 
the  spiritual  energy  that  pervades  tlie  universe.     Per- 
sonality is  the  spiritual  star  shining  clear  at  last  from 
the  spiritual  nebula. 

We  have  before  us  two  suppositions  with  regard  to 
the  origin  of  personality :  one  is  the  supposition  of  its 
supernatural  descent;  the   other  is  the    supposition  of 

1  Tliis  article  of  scientific  belief  is  well  stated  in  tliese  words  of  Pro- 
fessor Brooks  :  "All  living  things  are  one  by  birth,  and  the  system  of 
living  nature  is,  historically,  a  unit,  a  consistent  whole,  not  a  collection  of 
isolated  and  independent  species."     Foundations  of  Zoology,  p.  I:i3. 


172  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FATTH 

its  natural  ascent.  It  may  be  said  that  upon  this  latter 
supposition  the  dualism  is  not  really  escaped,  but  only 
put  farther  back.  If  that  were  so,  it  would  still  be  an  ad- 
vantage not  to  come  suddenly  upon  the  dualism  between 
mind  and  matter  far  down  in  the  course  of  evolution. 
For  if  abruptly,  and  without  warning,  mind  should  break 
in  upon  an  animal  body,  like  a  thief  in  the  night,  it 
would  be  an  inexplicable  appearance,  which  would  put 
all  our  knowledge  of  nature  to  confusion.  The  sup- 
position that  mind  was  thrust  suddenly  from  above 
down  into  a  material  body,  would  break  the  course  of 
nature  in  two  in  the  middle  of  it.  It  would  have 
nature  begin  looking  one  way,  and  suddenly  face  about, 
and  end  looking  another  way.  It  would  render  the 
whole  progressive  development  of  animal  intelligence 
abortive;  and  man  would  then  appear  as  an  after- 
thought to  make  good  nature's  miscarriage.  Upon  the 
supposition  of  his  supernatural  descent  man  comes  not 
to  fulfil  all  the  law  and  the  prophets  of  intelligence  before 
him  in  the  animal  dispensation,  but  as  a  second  creative 
attempt  to  put  mind  into  a  body  after  one  whole  course 
in  that  direction  had  proved  a  failure.  We  prefer  to 
think  of  the  coming  of  man  as  a  still  further  success  of 
the  Creator  in  the  one  eternal  purpose  of  intelligence. 

Moreover  (as  we  shall  take  occasion  to  note  more 
particularly  in  another  connection),  we  shall  escape  a 
peril  of  much  practical  as  well  as  philosophic  and 
religious  consequence,  if  we  do  not  regard  man  in  his 
origin  as  separate  from  nature:  man  does  not  stand 
apart,  having  his  life  in  himself  to  lead  — his  own 
person  a  miracle  over  which  he  may  congratulate  him- 


THE   COMING   OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL  173 

self ;  nor  in  his  strange  loneliness,  as  an  alien  here, 
need  he  feel  liimself  unreconciled  to  nature  —  he  himself 
set  against  the  world,  and  the  world  his  enemy.  We 
may  learn  from  the  development  of  individuality,  as 
we  follow  the  long,  ascending  natui'e-process  through 
which  personality  has  been  gained,  that  our  human  life 
is  essentially  a  life  bound  to  all  before  it,  and  to  all  the 
world  around  it ;  that  a  self-consciousness,  whicli  is  not 
at  the  same  time  a  natural  and  a  social  consciousness,  is 
an  aborted  and  degenerate  form  of  individuality ;  that  a 
man's  life  above  all  other  creatures  consists  in  com- 
munion, and  not  isolation,  in  a  felt  kinship  with  nature, 
a  most  friendly  sense  of  belonging  to  the  universe  in 
which  he  dwells,  and  of  oneness  with  the  living  God 
who  is  his  home. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  this  world  was 
religiously  and  philosophically  regarded  too  much  as  a 
thing  apart  —  as  a  rounded  whole,  indeed,  complete  in 
itself,  but  too  much  like  a  great  ball,  which  had  been 
rolled  together  in  six  days'  time,  and  thrown  from  tlie 
hand  of  the  Almighty  out  into  empty  space.  The  most 
man  had  to  do  with  this  earth-ball  was  to  condescend  to 
live  a  little  while  upon  it.  Man  was  looked  upon  as  a 
being  apart,  walking  in  solitary  and  awful  responsibility 
before  his  God,  like  a  lone  hgure  seen  on  a  wintry 
horizon,  wrapping  his  cloak  about  him,  and  standing 
out  sharp  and  clear  against  the  sky-line.  The  poetry, 
and  the  missionary  humanitarianism,  and  the  science, 
likewise,  of  the  nineteenth  century  liave  left  us  willi 
another  view  of  nature  and  of  man.  Wordswortli,  at 
tlie  beginning  of  it,  set  the  poet's  heart  free  from  ar- 


174  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

tificialities,  and  sent  our  human  life  back  to  nature. 
And  many  strong  and  gracious  influences  have  com- 
bined to  arouse  us  to  noble  sense  of  our  oneness  with 
humanity.-  We  know  that  only  in  the  good  of  all  can 
our  little  individual  cups  be  filled  with  always  over- 
flowing blessing.  As  part  and  essence  of  the  same 
higher  truth  of  the  perfection  of  the  individual  life,  not 
in  isolation,  but  in  fellowship,  modern  science  is  enabling 
us  more  richly  to  realize  our  oneness  of  origin,  of  en- 
deavor, and  of  destiny  with  the  whole  creation  in  its 
earnest  expectation  as  it  has  waited  for  us,  and  still 
waits  with  us,  for  further  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God. 
The  last  century's  science  has  left  us  with  a  new  and 
invigorating  sense  of  man's  belonging  to  nature,  and 
hence  also  with  a  deeper,  richer,  religious  sense  of  his 
possible  communion  with  the  Spirit  of  the  universe. 
Nature,  as  we  now  know  it,  is  a  growth  —  in  some 
directions,  maybe,  it  is  still  growing.  We  consider  the 
lilies  of  the  field,  we  consider  the  Pleiades  in  the  sky, 
how  they  grow.  And  man  too  is  one  of  the  first-fruits 
of  the  creation.  His  personality  is  outgrowth  of  the 
ages.  It  is  of  measureless  worth,  because  it  has  been  so 
long  in  growing;  all  things  hitherto  have  worked 
together  for  its  coming.  We  imagine  the  first  form- 
ing of  the  molecule  from  the  ethereal  something ;  and 
that  molecule  takes  on  significance  beyond  itself  as  the 
elemental  beginning  of  the  life  which  now  we  may  feel 
as  ours.  We  behold  the  self-movements  of  the  unicellu- 
lar organism  in  the  microscopic  field ;  and  even  that  early 
life  becomes  sacred  as  the  far  possibility  of  our  own. 
We  follow  the  development  of  intelligence,  of  pleasure 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  175 

and  of  pain,  in  the  liiglier  animal  world,  and  revere  it 
all  as  the  gathering  of  the  energies  and  the  shaping  of 
the  forms,  the  opening  of  the  eye,  and  the  sublimation 
of  the  brain,  which  in  the  fulness  of  time  shall  render 
possible  a  "being  breathing  thoughtful  breath,"  from 
whom  we  have  our  birthright.  As  we  receive  our 
personal  share  and  part  in  the  grand  spiritual  achieve- 
ment and  joy  of  all  these  ages  of  the  Spirit,  humbly  and 
with  grateful  reverence  we  would  learn  from  their 
unbroken  and  sure  development  this  supreme  word  of 
life's  interpretation,  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and 
I  work." 

What  then  does  this  poetic  feeling  from  the  last 
century's  beginning,  and  this  scientific  faith  of  man's 
unity  with  nature  at  its  close,  require  of  our  philosophy 
and  our  faith  ?  Not  denial,  nor  abridgment ;  not  fear, 
but  comprehension.  This  oneness  of  man  witli  nature 
remains  to  be  taken  up  into  and  assimilated  with  our 
philosophic  conception  of  personality.  Our  delinition 
of  personality  is  deficient,  if  it  does  not  include  this 
truth  of  its  humble  origin  and  its  glorious  ascent.  AW' 
shall  miss  indeed  the  truth,  if  we  ideiitify  personalit}^ 
with  anything  beneath  it ;  and  we  shall  also  miss  the 
truth,  if  we  fail  to  take  up  the  whole  process  of  nature 
before  it  into  the  idea  of  personal  life  and  its  fulness. 
To  identify  the  finished  individual  with  the  forms  and 
processes  by  which  he  has  been  brought  to  perfection, 
would  be  a  needless  lapse  into  materialism;  as  to  identify 
God  with  his  world  would  be  a  sheer  descent  into  panthe- 
ism. But  to  gain  any  scientific  or  philosophic  conception 
which  may  enable  us  better  to  perceive  how  all  things 


176  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

consist  in  God,  is  not  pantheism  —  it  is  religion.  And 
to  gain  some  scientific  idea  of  the  unity  of  nature,  which 
may  enable  us  better  to  perceive  how  the  whole  creation 
is  summed  up  in  a  Person  who  is  the  first-born  of  every 
creature,  that  in  all  things  he  might  have  the  pre-emi- 
nence, —  that  is  not  to  lose,  but  to  find  our  individuality 
in  a  richer  possession  of  it,  and  in  its  highest  revelation 
in  the  Son  of  man.  It  is  possible  that  the  scientific  view 
of  the  natural  history  of  personality  may  require  some 
philosophic  revision  of  our  conception  of  personality .^ 
But  such  revision  will  be  a  gain  rather  than  a  loss  ;  we 
shall  not  see  less  clearly  its  present  freedom  and  its 
spiritual  distinctness,  because  we  may  learn  to  see  more 
clearly  the  way  through  which  it  has  been  brought  to  its 
pre-eminence.  It  will  be  an  enlargement  and  enrichment 
of  the  idea  of  personality,  which  shall  comprehend  both 
the  separation  of  the  individual  life  from  the  mother's 
womb,  and  also  the  fulfilment  of  the  whole  nature- 
process  before  it,  when  there  is  the  joy  of  the  birth  of  a 
man-child  into  the  world.  From  origins  most  lowly,  and 
by  persistence  in  the  straight  way  of  life  not  to  be 
stayed  or  turned  aside,  the  distinctive  and  abiding  worth 
of  tiie  free,  self-conscious,  moral  being  has  been  reached. 
The  person  most  deeply  conscious  of  spiritual  distinction 
feels  likewise  most  truly  and  joyously  his  real  and  abid- 
ing unity  with  all  the  beautiful  world  without,  with  the 
whole  of  humanity,  and  with  the  living  One.^ 

1  Mr.  Morris  argues  that  mental  activities  may  be  products  of  the 
evolutionary  order  while  they  transcend  it.  A  Neiv  Natural  Theoloqii 
p.   207. 

2  The  Christian  theologian  may  find  help  from  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
natural  history  of  personality.     A  far  broader  natural  basis  may  be  gained 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  177 

To  follow  these  suggestions  further  would  lead  us 
into  philosophic  fields,  and  in  this  argument  we  must 
not  stray  too  far  from  the  naturalist's  path.  Those  who 
wish  to  pursue  the  matter  in  the  more  philosopliical 
direction  \\\\\  find  able  guidance,  though  sometimes 
rather  di[hcult  to  follow,  in  Mr.  Ward's  recent  volumes 
on  Naturalis)n  and  Agnosticism}  He  has  shown  w^iih 
critical  mercilessness  the  contradictions  and  absurdities 
into  which  those  thinkers  fall  wlio  would  put  matter 
lirst,  and  spirit  second,  in  evolution.  The  philosophic 
key  to  our  understanding  of  the  fact  of  the  unity  of  tlie 
world  is  given  in  the  faith  which  comes  naturally  to  us 
in  our  self-consciousness,  that  the  spiritual  has  priority  in 
everything.  JMind  may  have  lately  come  to  distinct  reve- 
lation in  human  personality ;  but  something  Intelligent 
and  Spiritual  is  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  evolution. 
If  we  begin  all  our  science  and  all  ourj  philosophy  with 
the  simple  assumption  of  the  priority  of  the  spiritual,  if 
we  assume  the  spirit  to  be  first  and  discover  its  increas- 
ing revelation  through  evolution,  we  shall  not  indeed 

thereby  for  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.  It  may  be  seen  to  be  culmi- 
nation and  fulfilment,  not  breacli  and  reparation  of  natural  law.  The 
highest  Christian  revelation  in  the  supernal  Person  of  tlie  Sou  of  God's 
love  may  appear  as  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  — the  only  natural 
end  of  it.  Would  not  the  Apostle  Paul  iiave  gloried  in  the  knowledge, 
which  thus  opens  before  us,  of  the  "  First-born  of  the  creation  "  ?  Put  a 
suggestion  here  must  suffice. 

1  See  also  the  notes  of  Mr.  Romanes'  unwritten  book  iu  Thoufjlds  on 
Religion,  pp.127  sq.  Becoming  a  theist,  he  perceived  "the  possible 
union  of  immanence  with  personality."  He  proposed  "  to  go  much  fur- 
ther than  any  one  has  hitherto  gone  in  proving  tlie  j)Ossibility  of  this 
union."  The  theologian  may  well  heed  this  remark  of  that  Darwinian 
naturalist:  "For  no  one,  even  the  most  orthodox,  has  as  yet  learnt  this 
lesson  of  religion  to  anything  like  fulness.  God  is  still  grudged  His  own 
universe,  so  to  speak,  etc." 

12 


178  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

escape  difficulties,  nor  solve  all  mysteries ;  but  the  diffi- 
culties which  our  thought  must  meet,  will  be  seen  to 
arise  from  the  limits  of  our  knowledge,  and  not  to  lie 
necessarily  in  the  nature  of  things ;  and  the  mystery 
which  beyond  all  our  science  must  remain,  will  be  felt 
gladly  by  us  as  a  mystery  of  the  infinite  light,  and  not 
feared  as  the  horror  of  great  darkness.  The  world  as  a 
spiritual  evolution  is  at  least  rational,  if  it  be  not  fully 
comprehensible;  the  world  as  mechanical  evolution  is 
neither  comprehensible,  nor  rational.  If  we  begin  with 
the  spiritual,  we  know  what  we  know,  although  we 
know  in  part ;  if  we  begin  with  the  mechanical,  Ave  do 
not  know,  and  what  we  think  we  know,  is  meaningless. 
From  the  naturalist's  point  of  view,  without  entering 
too  far  into  the  metaphysical,  the  matter  may  be  put 
summarily  in  this  way:  Taking  our  start  from  the 
assumed  priority  of  the  Spirit,  and  trusting  to  a  principle 
of  intelligent  direction  throughout  nature,  we  can  at 
least  follow  one  way,  keep  to  the  same  ascending  path, 
and  never  need  lose  the  clue  in  following  nature  on  and 
on.  All  the  facts  which  are  becoming  known  concern- 
ing sentiency  and  intelligence  in  the  plant  and  animal 
world ;  all  the  observations  which  are  being  gathered  to 
show  the  action  of  intelligence  among  animals,  fall  into 
place,  and  shall  serve  to  mark  out  the  continuous  spirit- 
ual course  and  character  of  evolution.  And  the  com- 
ing of  the  final  distinct  and  permanent  person  is  not 
a  miracle,  but  an  advent.  Personality  crowns  the  whole 
natural  process  of  individuation  ;  it  is  the  supernal  fact 
towards  which  the  evolution  has  always  been  directed. 
The  naturalist  may  say,  If  I  cannot  define  personality. 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  179 

I  may  accept  it.  I  cannot  define  life,  but  I  will  possess 
it,  and  make  the  most  of  it.  I  will  dispute  no  reality 
which  I  may  know,  although  my  science  can  know  it 
but  in  part. 

It  lies  next  in  the  course  of  our  thought  to  search 
more  thoroughly  for  the  meaning  of  the  advent  of 
personality  in  nature.  How  are  we  to  interpret  the 
significance  of  this  supreme  fact  of  human  personality, 
which  we  have  seen  to  be  the  summit  and  glory  of 
nature's  long  process  of  individuation?  Man's  self- 
conscious  life,  as  we  have  been  insisting,  does  not 
lose  its  spiritual  supremacy  when  it  is  seen  to  be  the 
issue  of  all  the  energies  that  have  been  working  to- 
gether for  good  throughout  the  whole  nature-process 
before  his  coming.  The  worth  of  our  human  personal- 
ity receives  higher  valuation  when  we  estimate  it  by 
the  cost  of  the  ages.  Personality  becomes  more  sig- 
nificant when  we  discover  that  with  the  inevitableness 
of  natural  law  its  high  calling  and  spiritual  election 
have  been  made  sure  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  By  this  conclusion  we  are  prepared  to  find 
further  meanings  in  the  coming  of  personal  life  as  an 
event  in  evolution.  As  other,  lesser  events  before  it 
have  indicated,  only  more  conspicuousl}',  it  shows  that 
the  spiritual  energy  in  evolution  has  power  to  keep  on 
from  one  order  to  a  higher  order.  Nature  does  not 
break  with  itself  while  it  rises  above  itself.  Time  and 
time  again  the  crisis  has  come  when  nature  must  go 
forward  to  something  better,  or  else  fall  back  beneath 
itself.     And  the  crisis  never  yet  has  proved  to  be  too 


180  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

much  for  the  inner  spiritual  energy  of  the  universe. 
This  would  not  be  so,  were  nature  only  so  much 
mechanics.  For  a  mere  machine  cannot  meet  a  crisis 
and  rise  above  it.  But  nature  does.  A  machine  can 
never  transcend  itself.  But  nature  passes  the  critical 
point,  and  goes  on.  The  Spirit  which  is  in  nature 
gathers  itself  up,  as  it  were,  and  presses  on  towards 
the  goal. 

It  is  true  that  at  the  end  of  one  order  evolution  seems 
at  times  to  take  a  great  step  forwards  ;  but  the  leap  is 
never  made  aimlessly  in  the  dark.  Nor  is  the  new 
order  too  distant  to  be  reached  from  the  old.  But  there 
is  an  advance,  and  the  new  is  better  than  the  old. 
The  early  step  from  the  physical  order  to  the  proto- 
plasmic order  —  that  step  which  was  first  taken  we 
know  not  when  or  where  —  was  not  too  long  for  the 
spiritual  energy  of  nature  to  traverse ;  nor  was  the 
rise  from  the  highest  animal  intelligence  to  the  lowest 
human  intelligence  —  great  as  that  distance  may  seem 
to  be  —  too  difficult  for  the  same  Spirit  to  compass  it. 
The  living  God,  we  may  believe,  has  nowhere  broken 
with  his  own  thought.  He  has  fulfilled  himself  in  evo- 
lution. Personality  is  significant  as  fulfilment  of  the 
Divine  in  nature. 

We  may  discern  in  several  particulars  this  meaning 
of  the  arrival  of  personality  as  an  event  in  evolution. 
Two  noteworthy  signs  in  man's  coming  are  to  be 
pointed  out.  One  is  given  in  this  fact:  when  man  is 
reached,  there  appears  to  be  an  arrest  of  evolution  in 
one  direction,  followed  by  an  opening  for  life  in  a  new 
direction.     The  body  stops  ;  the  mind  goes  on.     Physi- 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  181 

ological  development  is  stayed;  a  new  way  of  mental 
development  is  opened.     In  the  human  body  the  long- 
continued  process  of  sharpening  the  senses  and  of  refin- 
ing the  instincts  is  brought  to  an  end.     Animal  sentiency 
becomes  secondary  and  tributary  to  self-consciousness. 
Life  consciously  determined  takes  the  place  largely  of 
instinctive  action.     We  may  observe  in  ourselves  the 
evidence   both  of  the  conservation,  and  also   the  sub- 
ordination of  animal  sentiency.     For,  on  the  one  hand, 
sensitiveness  is  kept  at  its  height  in  our  nervous  organ- 
ization.    The  human  brain  as  a  central  organ,  together 
with  the  nervous  system  connected  with  it,  is  the  fin- 
ished mechanism  of   sensation,  —  the   finest,  the   most 
subtle  and  most  spiritually  responsive  which  nature  has 
been  able  to  produce  on  the  plane  of  animal  sentiency. 
Taken  as  a  whole  it  is  the  perfection  of  sensation.     In 
particular  senses  some  lower  animals,  it  is  true,   may 
surpass   man's  sentient  power:    the    eagle   in   its  airy 
circling  has  sharper  keenness  of  eye  ;  the  deer  on  the 
alert  in  the  forest  possesses  more  subtle  scent,  and  will 
escape  us ;   even  the  insects   among  the  flowers  have 
optic  ganglia  so  curiously  connected  with  the  facets  of 
their  compound  eyes  tlmt  quite  possibly  they  may  see 
some  things  which  our  eyes  cannot  perceive.^     When, 
however,  we  consider  sentiency  as  a  whole,  and  in  its 
varied   adaptation   to   environment,   we    may    conclude 
that  in  the  human  body  sentiency  has  apparently  reached 
an  ultimate  degree  of  physiological  perfectness.     In  some 
ways  still  it  may  be  enhanced,  but  in  form  it  is  fniislied. 
There  is  indeed  no  sign  of  any  further  development 

1  Wallace,  Natural  Selection,  p.  92. 


182  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

of  mere  body  beyond  our  present  embodiment.  Nature 
gives  no  promise  of  any  higher  and  finer  arrangement  of 
molecules  for  sentient  life  than  is  now  found  in  the 
intricate  structure  of  the  brain  of  man.  The  extent 
to  which  organization  of  atomic  matter  for  the  use  of 
intelligence  has  been  brought  in  the  convolutions  of 
the  brain,  is  a  wonder  passing  knowledge.  It  would 
seem  that  matter  more  ethereal  must  be  used,  if  em- 
bodiment for  the  use  of  the  spirit  is  to  be  carried  any 
higher.  There  is  no  hint  anywhere  of  the  future  com- 
ing of  any  body  of  the  earth  earthy,  which  shall  be  consti- 
tuted from  atomic  matter  of  cells  endowed  with  subtler 
elements,  woven  into  more  delicate  nerve  patterns,  and 
serving  as  an  organ  still  more  marvellously  subjected 
to  the  processes  of  the  intellectual  life.  So  far  as  cr 
observation  extends,  nature  has  reached  her  ultimate  of 
molecular  organization  for  spiritual  uses  in  the  human 
body. 

This  conclusion  is  rendered  more  evident  by  the  fur- 
ther fact  that  in  some  particulars  sensation  has  already 
dropped  back  and  become  less  refined  in  man's  body 
than  in  some  animals.  For  such  arrest  and  even 
slight  retrogression  in  the  senses  of  man,  indicate  that 
an  acme  of  sensation  has  been  attained  in  his  nervous 
system,  and  that  no  step  further  is  to  be  taken  in  this 
direction.  Another  step,  even  a  short  one,  might 
require  not  the  further  development  of  this  body,  but 
the  advent  of  a  new  type  of  embodiment. 

The  arrest  of  physiological  development  and  need  of 
some  new  order  of  body  for  mind,  if  evolution  is  to  con- 
tinue beyond  man's  present  estate,  will  appear  clearly 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  183 

when  we  compare  the  part  played  by  instinct  in  tlie 
higher  animals  with  the  use  of  instinct  to  man.  The 
effort  of  the  individual  to  maintain  its  own  life  culmi- 
nates in  animal  instinct.  Instinct  has  become  keenly 
sharpened  as  a  weapon  for  protection  in  the  animal 
world.  But  in  man,  while  instinct  remains  as  an  animal 
achievement,  it  plays,  almost  from  infancy,  a  subordinate 
role.  It  is  not  our  chief  dependence  for  self-preserva- 
tion. ]\Ian  in  some  respects  has  dulled  the  fine  edge  of 
instinct  to  which  nature  has  brought  animal  sentiency. 
But  the  loss  is  for  a  gain.  The  loss  of  animal  instinct 
is  less  in  the  lower,  savage  races  than  in  the  more 
intelligent  types  of  humanity.  The  gain  in  the  latter 
is  the  result  of  the  overshadowing  of  a  lower  kind  of 
t  If-existence  by  a  higher  kind :  instinct  decreases  only 
as  reason  increases.  It  falls  into  disuse  because  some- 
thing else  has  come  in  for  better  use. 

These  facts  suggest  the  further  pro2)hetic  meaning  of 
the  advent  of  personal  life.  Through  personality  and 
its  possible  development  a  new  way  of  evolution  has 
been  opened.  The  arrest  of  the  bod}-  is  an  announce- 
ment of  the  birth  of  the  soul ;  —  and  that  is  to  grow  after 
its  kind. 

Another  fact  of  large  interpretative  significance  de- 
serves in  this  connection  far  more  attention  tlian  it  has 
as  yet  received.  It  is  a  note  of  evolution  of  great 
moment  that  in  the  coming  of  man  a  point  is  reached 
where  the  individual  begins  to  exist  for  his  own  sake, 
and  no  longer  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  tlie  species.  Tliis 
is  a  critical  point,  — to  pass  it,  is  a  gain  immeasural)le. 
At  last  the  value  of  the  species  culminates  in  the  worth 


184  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

of  the  individual.  Man,  the  species,  exists  for  man  the 
individual  person. 

The  course  of  individuation,  which  we  have  sketched, 
results  at  length  in  a  change  of  values.  At  first,  and 
for  a  long  time,  the  individual  life  was  possessed  of 
value  because  it  was  adapted  to  the  task  of  preserving 
the  species.  At  any  cost  to  the  swarming  myriads  of 
organisms  the  species  must  be  maintained  and  perfected, 
and  the  way  prepared  for  still  better  species.  Now 
there  is  no  other  or  higher  species  than  the  human  race 
to  come,  and  the  individual  man  asserts  the  worth  of 
his  life  to  himself.  It  will  prove  profitable  for  us  to 
examine  this  truth  more  closely. 

Among  the  lowest  organisms  the  struggle  of  life  is 
visibly  for  the  success  of  the  species.  The  germ-pLasm 
survives.  It  is  life  in  general,  not  the  individual,  which 
is  deathless.  Nature's  first  interest  seems  to  be  solely 
to  fashion  and  to  maintain  the  species,  and  it  sacrifices 
myriads  of  individuals  that  the  species  may  be  preserved. 
Multitudes  of  individual  organisms  perish  almost  as 
quickly  as  they  spring  up.  Many  exist  just  long  enough 
to  reproduce  themselves.  The  Mayflies,  for  instance,  live 
for  a  brief  nuptial  flight  in  the  sunshine,  and  die  in  the 
very  effort  of  maintaining  their  kind.  Alternate  gen- 
erations occur,  the  species  being  thus  kept  alive  through 
different  forms  which  perish.  The  life-circle  remains 
unbroken,  while  the  organisms  which  complete  it  j^ass 
away.  Some  adults,  like  the  Yucca  moth,  wili  make 
curious  provision  for  the  future  preservation  of  off- 
spring which  shall  exist  in  a  form  and  manner  totally 
unlike  the  parent  organism,  and  of  which  the  parental 


THE   COMING   OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL  185 

moth  can  have  had  no  experience.  It  never  sees  its 
own  offspring,  and  would  not  recognize  them  if  it  did. 
So  the  parents  toil  and  spin  and  perish  for  the  benefit  of 
a  posterity  they  know  not  of.  So  the  species,  not  the 
individual  life,  is  nature's  first  care  —  the  object  through 
age-long  cycles  of  her  unwearying  pursuit.  One  of  the 
most  general  impressions  of  observers  of  the  life  which 
flits  through  the  air,  blooms  in  the  meadows,  and  teems 
in  the  waters,  is  this,  that  the  individual  counts  for 
nothing,  and  that  thought  for  the  species  is  all  tliat 
nature  has  at  heart.  What  our  older  theologian,  Jon- 
athan Edwards,  regarded  as  the  essence  of  virtue  seems 
thus  in  a  sense  to  be  nature's  earliest  characteristic, 
viz.,  "the  love  of  being  in  general."  Nature  at  first 
seems  not  to  be  mindful  of  being  in  the  particular. 

From  this  observation  of  the  universal  primacy  which 
nature  seems  to  give  to  the  species,  and  her  recklessness 
of  the  individual,  we  are  apt  to  carry  over  to  the  esti- 
mate of  our  own  existence  the  thought  that  with  us  like- 
wise the  same  law  holds,  and  the  same  strenuous  process 
must  be  continued,  so  that  the  individual  man  can  be 
possessed  of  no  distinctive  value  in  himself,  but  must 
live  and  die,  as  have  all  forms  of  life  before  him,  simply 
that  his  race  may  be  preserved,  and  humanity  survive, 
Avhile  the  individual  perishes  forever.  lUit  is  this  in- 
ference from  the  world  below  us,  as  to  the  value  of  our 
life,  correct?  Because  the  individual  counts  seemingly 
for  nothing  below  the  plane  of  personal  life,  is  it  true 
on  our  plane  that  the  species  is  the  main  thing,  and  the 
individual  the  least  concern  of  nature?  At  this  point 
a   principle  which  we   have   already  expounded  comes 


186  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

again  to  guide  our  reasoning,  —  we  refer  to  the  law  of 
vital  values.  Each  successive  stage  of  life  has  its  own 
vital  value.  One  feature  may  be  of  more  value  to  life 
on  one  stage  of  evolution;  another  character  may  be 
the  thing  of  worth  on  a  higher  j^lane.  The  question  at 
every  point  of  the  way  is,  what  at  that  point  is  the  thing 
of  most  value?  It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  as  the 
evolution  proceeds,  something  wdiich  heretofore  had  not 
played  an  important  part,  or  been  of  prime  value  to  life, 
may  rise  to  the  place  of  supreme  worth,  and  become  the 
one  law  to  which  nature  will  keep  with  all  her  strength. 
It  would  not  be  surprising,  therefore,  if,  when  the  higher 
plane  of  personality  is  reached,  the  individual  should 
acquire  a  value  never  before  known  in  nature.  It  would 
not  be  a  breach  of  continuity,  if  it  should  appear  that  the 
law,  which  before  had  held  good,  of  the  existence  of  the 
individual  for  the  sake  of  the  species,  should  meet  with 
some  modification,  or  become  subordinate  to  some  higher 
valuation  with  the  advent  of  man.  If  so,  it  would  be 
probable  also  that  the  new  valuation  put  at  this  stage  of 
evolution  on  the  individual,  would  be  seen  to  be  the  cul- 
mination of  a  worth  wdiich  had  been  growing,  unsus- 
pected and  unperceived,  perhaps,  through  the  whole 
previous  course  of  nature.  It  would  be  revelation  of  a 
thought  of  worth  which  all  the  while  had  been  hidden 
in  nature's  heart.  Is  it  so  ?  Are  there  any  facts  which 
indicate  that  beneath  nature's  manifest  care  for  the  spe- 
cies she  has  had  from  the  beginning  a  deeper  passion, 
and  that  all  the  while,  although  she  has  not  told  it,  the 
individual  and  his  noble  worth  has  been  the  secret  of 
all  her  thoughts  ? 


THE   COMING   OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL  187 

For  the  answer  we  look  again,  and  with  more  eager 
searching,  into  the  facts  of  life.     We  may  notice  multi- 
plying signs,  as  life  ascends,  of  the  relative  increase  of 
value  given  to  the  individual  in  comparison  with  the 
preservation  of    the   species.       Such    signs   are    these. 
There  is  an  increasing  limitation  of  the  number  of  the 
individuals  which  are  necessary  to  maintain  the  species. 
More  play  in  the  preservation  of  the  species  is  given  to 
the  individual  life.     More  use  of  individuality  is  made 
for  the  species.     Compare,  for  example,  the   immense 
number  of  the  eggs  of  fishes  or  of  insects,  which  are 
required  for  the  preservation  of  the  species,  with  the 
smaller  number  of   eggs  of   the   birds  and  the  higher 
mammals.     Weismann   has   noticed   the   fact   that  the 
golden  eagle  lays  but  one  or  two  eggs,  while  at  the  same 
time  nature  has  made  careful  provision  for  the  protec- 
tion of  one  or  two  eaglets  only,  and  trusts  to  this  pro- 
vision for  the  preservation  of  the  family  of  golden  eagles ; 
that  is,  nature  begins  to  trust  to  numbers  far  less,  and  to 
individuality  far  more.     Her  method  of  maintaining  the 
species   has   thus   been   quietly  changed   from  that  of 
prodigality  of  birth  to  careful  nurture  of  a  few  offspring. 
Limitation,  instead  of   prodigality,  is  the  new  sign  of 
nature's  advancing  individuation.     The  species  is  con- 
tinued, no  longer  through  the  swarming  of  the  many,  but 
by  the  election  of  the  few.     The  way  of  natural  provi- 
dence  ceases   to   resemble    the  thoughtlessness  of   the 
spendthrift,  and  becomes  the  method  of  the  caretaker. 
Nature  takes  no  longer  the  chance  that  a  few  of   the 
multitudinous   seed   may   escape    destruction,   but   she 
trusts  to  the  power  of  the  carefully  selected  few  to  main- 


188  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

tain  themselves  in  tlie  struggle  of  existence.  Nature, 
in  short,  prizes  the  individual  more  highly,  and  uses  him 
more  and  more  in  evolution.  And  this  change  also  is  a 
prophetic  sign. 

Added  to  this  fact  is  the  further  circumstance  that  in 
the  higher  animals  the  life  of  the  individual  is  prolonged 
after  it  has  ceased  to  be  of  value  simply  for  the  sake 
of  reproducing  its  like.  The  natural  limitation  of  life 
among  the  lower  creatures  seems  to  be  deternlined  directly 
by  reference  to  its  reproductive  function.  When  that 
has  been  fulfilled  the  individual  dies.  Nature  has  no  fur- 
ther use  for  it,  and  it  perishes.  But  this  relation  between 
the  duration  of  life  and  its  reproductive  power  changes 
in  the  higher  forms ;  new  factors  enter  in;  maternity  ceases 
to  be  fatal.  Motherhood  takes  on  happier  worth ;  it  may 
continue  long  as  the  blessing  of  a  human  home. 

In  this  connection  due  estimate  should  be  made  of  that 
remarkable  aspect  of  evolution  which  it  is  Mr.  John 
Fiske's  distinction  to  have  pointed  out  and  emphasized ; 
viz.,  the  prolongation  of  the  period  of  infancy  among  the 
higher  animals,  and  its  especial  significance  and  beauty 
in  our  human  homes.  By  all  these  signs  nature  shows 
her  increasing  valuation  of  the  individual.  For  him  and 
for  his  happiness  she  has  toiled  and  spun.  For  him  and 
his  personal  life  she  has  sacrificed  all.  For  the  mother 
and  the  child,  for  the  man  and  woman  living  for  long 
years  of  love  and  joy,  all  her  ages  have  been  given,  all  her 
work  has  been  done.  The  individual  in  his  perfectness 
is  the  end  of  all  nature's  ways.  For  him  has  been  the  love 
kept  secret  in  nature's  heart  from  the  beginning  of  days. 

We  may  sum  up  biologically  this  matter  as  follows. 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  189 

Its  importance  justifies  some  repetition.      We  grant  the 
apparent  truth  that  the  individual  at  first  sight  seems  to 
have  been  made  for  the  species ;  that  adaptations  of  the 
individual  organism  have  been  naturally  selected  in  re- 
lation  to    their    species-maintaining    value;    that    the 
individual   perishes    in   order  that   the  species  may  be 
preserved,  and  that  the  individual  may  even  be  helped 
to  perish  by  the  very  adaptations  which  serve  for  the 
better  preservation  of  tlie  species.     But,  on  the   other 
hand,  there  are  certain  aspects  of  evolution,  less  notice- 
able  at  the  first,  yet  more  and  more  revealed  as  life 
advances,  which  show  the  coming  value  of  the  individ- 
ual.    The  individual  seems  steadily  to  gain  in  import- 
ance in  comparison  with  the  species.     Suppose  that  at 
length  in  this  increasing  worth  of  the  individual  a  point 
of  equilibrium  is  reached  where  nature's  two  interests 
in   life    become    evenly   balanced,    and   the   individual 
equally  with  the  species  has  vital  value.     What  then? 
The  process  certainly  could  not  stop  there ;  nature  never 
rests  at  any  point  of  equilibrium;  nature   is  certainly 
not  a  machine  which  can  be  stalled  on  a  dead  centre. 
Should  these  two  interests,  that  of  the  species  and  that 
of  the  individual,   become   equally  balanced,  then  two 
courses  are  left  open :  either  one  or  the  otlier  must  be- 
come predominant  and  determinative  in  the  process  of 
natural  selection;  either  nature   must   return   to  a  re- 
assertion  of  the  original  necessity  that  species  is  the  one 
thing  to  be  preserved,  or  else  press  on  to  the   higher 
assertion  of  the  supreme  worth  of  the  individual.     In 
the  latter  case,  the  natural  logic  of  the  movement  onward 
to  the  highest  vital  value  may  require  eventually  the 


190  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

subordination  even  of  the  reproduction  of  the  race  to 
the  immortality  of  the  individual  persons.  If  this  be  so, 
vre  might  expect  f  urtlier  to  discover  some  tendency  in  evo- 
lution to  render  the  powers  which  regenerate  the  species 
subordinate  to  the  powers  which  regenerate  the  man. 

As  another  consequence  there  would  be  involved 
naturally  the  limitation  of  the  numbers  of  the  individ- 
uals who  in  their  succession  constitute  a  race,  and  the 
survival  or  immortality  of  the  individuals  who  had 
attained  life  in  the  highest :  after  the  race  might  have 
ceased  to  be  maintained  by  its  propagation  through  suc- 
cessive generations,  it  would  survive  through  the  con- 
tinuance in  existence  of  the  individuals  which  it  had 
produced.  And  in  proportion  as  we  may  find  reason 
to  suppose  that  this  is  the  actual  culmination  in  the  life 
of  man,  and  its  abiding  worth,  we  may  draw  from  these 
considerations  a  natural  presumption  for  the  continu- 
ance of  man's  personal  life  in  some  further  adaptations 
to  the  conditions  of  his  existence  beyond  our  knowledge. 
To  this  trend  of  the  argument  we  shall  return  later  on. 

We  remark  in  passing  that  at  least  in  view  of  these 
facts  and  half -disclosed  tendencies  of  evolution,  we  can 
no  longer  draw,  as  has  so  often  been  done,  an  argument 
against  the  future  continuance  of  the  individual  life 
from  nature's  seemingly  relentless  care  only  for  the 
species.  For  the  survival-value  of  the  individual  be- 
comes in  time  the  chief  value.  To  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual natural  selection  itself  is  put  finally  under  bonds. 
The  final  question  therefore,  which  is  raised  by  this 
whole  process  of  individuation  up  to  its  natural  climax 
in  man's  self-conscious  personality,  may  be  put  after  this 


THE   COMING    OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL  191 

manner:  Has  not  at  last  in  man's  life  a  point  of  equi- 
librium between  the  vital  value  of  the  species  and  the 
worth  of  the  individual  life  been  reached  and  passed? 
Has  not  life  the  most  at  stake  now  in  the  continuance 
of  personality  ?  Has  the  individual  life  gained  at  last  a 
supreme  spiritual  worth  ?  Is  it  so  at  last,  that  to  proceed 
further,  to  complete  all  before,  and  to  go  on,  this  one 
thing  evolution  must  do,  —  press  toward  the  goal  of  the 
immortal  individual  life  ?     The  one  thing  that  remains, 

—  all  beneath  having  been  accomplished,  —  is  it  not  for 
the  living  person  to  gain  perfect  adaptation  to  eternal 
life?  Henceforth  in  the  new  order,  which  shall  be 
fulfilment  of  all,  shall  man  the  species  cease  to  be  mul- 
tiplied on  the  earth,  and  man  the  spiritual  individual 
live  immortal?  Does  the  evolution  as  a  whole,  we  are 
questioning,  point  that  way?  We  are  assured  in  the 
Christian  revelation  that  the  children  of  the  resurrection 
shall  neither  marry  nor  be  given  in  marriage,  but  they 
shall  be  as  the  angels  of  God.  That  is,  in  the 
resurrection-life  man  the  species  has  died;  man  the 
individual  lives  on.  Sex,  through  which  life  became 
rich  and  fair,  shall  no  more  be  needed  for  the  sake  of 
life ;  —  they  shall  no  more  marr}^,  but  men  and  women, 
the  children  of  marriage,  shall  be  as  the  angels. 
Through  the  death  of  the  human  species  shall  be  gained, 
as  the  consummation  of  all,  the  immortality  of  the  indi- 
viduals.    They  who  are  accounted  worthy  of  that  world 

—  in  whom  life  has  reached  such  survival  worth  —  are 
equal  to  the  angels,  and  are  the  sons  of  God.^ 

1  Luke  XX.  36.      In  relation  to  the  origin  and  the  end  of  sex  in  evolu- 
tion see  the  author's  Place  of  Death  in  Evolution,  pp.  24, 133-13.5.     It  would 


192  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

Before  we  may  approach  any  nearer  from  the  natural- 
ist's side  to  the  hope  thus  suggested,  some  other  ques- 
tions which  meet  us  at  this  point  must  be  resolved,  and 
some  further  principles  of  spiritual  direction  in  nature 
need  to  be  elucidated. 

seem  unnecessary  to  remark,  if  some  critics  had  not  mistaken  the  point, 
that  it  is  not  supposed  that  the  products  of  sex,  the  distinctions  between 
men  and  women,  are  to  be  lost  according  to  this  conception  of  future 
social  immortality  ;  but  only  that  sex  itself,  the  means  of  the  diversification 
and  enrichment  of  life,  is  to  disappear  when  its  work  in  evolution  is  done. 


CHAPTER   IX 

RETROGRESSION   IN   EVOLUTION 

One  of  the  questions  which  confront  our  hope  of 
better  life  for  man,  is  raised  by  the  unmistakable  fact  of 
retrogression  in  nature.  The  process  of  individualiza- 
tion, wliich  has  reached  so  high  a  plane  in  our  personal 
life,  leaves  open  at  every  step  of  it  the  possibility  of  a 
fall.  On  any  height  of  life  thus  far  attained,  a  fall  from 
hfe  is  possible.  Can  we  hope  to  gain  for  the  individual 
life  some  height  at  last  from  which  no  fall  may  be 
possible  ?  Or  shall  descent  even  into  the  depths  be  the 
last  end  of  evolution?  After  the  whole  struggle  and 
the  supreme  achievement  of  personal  being  and  joy,  shall 
death,  not  life,  prove  to  be  the  final  law  ?  What,  if  any, 
are  the  facts  touching  this  issue  of  greatest  concern  to 
man,  and  may  we  read  them  in  any  interpretative  light? 

Retrogression  is  certainly  a  fact  in  evolution.  At 
times  in  nature's  progress  there  has  been  some  slipping 
backwards  of  the  wheels.  From  life's  straight  and 
narrow  way  there  have  been  all  along  deviations  on 
either  side.  Nor  has  the  path  of  life  been  uniformly 
an  ascending  one.  Some  loss,  at  times  seemingly  cruel 
loss,  is  to  be  seen  on  the  field  of  life.  Even  under 
normal  conditions  metabolism,   as  it   is  called,   or   the 

VJ-6 


194  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

series  of  changes  always  going  on  in  the  nutrition  of  an 
organism,  is  both  constructive  and  destructive,  an  up- 
building and  a  pulling  down.  Under  unfavorable  con- 
ditions a  species  may  lose  the  foothold  which  it  had 
already  gained,  and  perish.  Degeneration  is  a  familiar 
fact.  De-evolution  is  always  possible  in  the  cycles  of 
endless  change.  Higher  forms  will  lapse  into  lower ; 
vital  products  may  break  down ;  the  crystal  can  be 
ground  to  powder ;  the  elements  may  be  dissolved  with 
fervent  heat.  A  descent  of  man  —  his  fall  from  his 
high  estate  —  is  not  outside  the  natural  possibilities. 
Anywhere  along  life's  way,  even  at  its  highest,  death 
may  be  met  coming  naturally  there,  and  not  appearing 
suddenly  as  a  supernatural  enemy.  But  is  the  entrance 
of  death  a  defeat  of  life  ?  Is  retrogression  a  passing 
phase,  or  final  tendency  of  evolution?  Is  the  fall  a 
temporary  incident,  or  a  necessary  and  irretrievable  loss 
of  life  ?  Furthermore,  where  retrogression  and  descent 
may  be  observed,  is  there  also  on  closer  scrutiny  to  be 
discerned  any  principle  of  restoration  in  nature  ?  Can 
any  principle  of  life  be  discovered  by  means  of  which 
evil  shall  be  held  within  limits,  and  finally  be  overcome 
of  good? 

We  can  only  judge  of  what  is  unavoidable  or  necessary 
in  nature  from  the  actual  course  of  events.  From  that 
which  nature  has  done  we  must  learn  what  can  be  done. 
As  matter  of  fact  we  observe  that  variation  —  the  life- 
enriching  potency  of  nature,  —  itself  involves  the  possi- 
bility of  retrogressions.  Variations  ^vhich  are  not  fitted 
to  survive  have  occurred,  and  been  rejected.  Some 
oscillation   of   life  below  as  well   as  above  the    mean, 


RETROGRESSION  IN  EVOLUTION  195 

results  from   the  same  principle  of  variation  which   is 
nature's  chosen  method  of  advance. 

A  scientific  generalization,  which  is  known  as  Galton's 
law,  is  here  to  the  point;  it  has  been  called  "the  law 
of  filial  recrression."  Galton  demonstrated  through 
much  research  a  law  of  averages  in  evolution,  or  a 
tendency  in  natural  variation  to  return  to  the  mean  ; 
as,  for  instance,  the  children  of  very  tall  parents  are  not 
always  so  tall,  and  the  children  of  small  parents  not  so 
short  as  their  fathers  and  mothers ;  and  a  similar  ten- 
dency towards  the  average  prevails  with  regard  to  the 
intellectual  stature,  the  children  of  genius  are  not  so 
remarkable,  and  fortunately  the  children  even  of  matched 
stupidity  may  not  be  so  dull  as  their  parents.^  We 
may  observe  a  similar  tendency  towards  the  mean  in  the 
moral  sphere  ;  are  we  not  all  apt  to  be  quite  content 
with  keeping  our  conduct  up  to  the  average  standards 
of  social  propriety,  civic  virtues,  and  even  religious 
customs  ?  In  view  of  this  natural  tendency  towards  the 
mean  between  extremes  of  development,  it  is  evident 
that  progress  is  to  be  gained  and  secured,  if  at  all,  by 
leveling  the  whole  mass  up.  Among  the  conditions 
of  progressive  evolution,  this  give  and  play  of  life 
backwards  and  forwards,  above  and  below  the  average, 
seems  to  be  necessary.  The  bearings  of  nature's  wheel 
are  never  screwed  too  tight  to  permit  of  some  oscillation, 
so  that  it  may  go.  Some  deterioration  seems  to  be  an 
incidental  expense  as  part  of  the  cost  of  progress. 

The  possibility  of  retrogression,  which  is  involved  in 
any   progressive   evolution,    is   not   lessened,  rather   it 

1  Gallon,  Natural  Inheritance :  Hereditary  Genius. 


196  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

grows  greater  and  more  ominous,  tlie  higher  up  life  may 
succeed  in  climbing.  And  degeneracy  becomes  more 
marked  and  more  repulsive  the  more  finely  organized 
the  forms  in  which  it  appears.  In  the  more  complex 
and  more  vitally  valuable  organisms  there  may  ensue  a 
process  of  degeneracy,  which  shall  involve  more  exten- 
sive and  disastrous  evil  in  proportion  to  the  worth  of 
the  organization  in  which  decay  has  started. 

A  single  isolated  cell  may  be  maltreated  by  a  biol- 
ogist, and,  if  he  gives  some  poison  to  it,  certain  degen- 
erative changes  in  its  protoplasm  will  soon  follow,  or 
its  activities  may  be  entirely  destroyed.  If  the  cell 
exists  not  for  itself  alone,  but  as  a  part  of  some  tissue, 
then,  besides  its  loss  of  its  normal  activities,  other  and 
more  extended  consequences  follow  ;  other  cells  will 
suffer  with  it ;  the  tissue  of  which  it  is  a  part  becomes 
affected,  and  may  cease  entirely  to  fulfil  its  function  in 
the  body  which  it  serves.  Then  the  whole  body  may 
perish.  The  individual  cells  of  a  cancerous  growth,  for 
instance,  are  known  to  multiply  abnormally  ;  they  will 
form  several  figures  of  division  at  once,  thus  showing 
signs  of  rapid  degeneracy ;  and  as  a  result  the  entire  tissue 
in  which  they  grow  speedily  degenerates,  and  death  en- 
sues. So  degeneracy  increases  in  extent  and  complexity 
with  organization.  The  evil  of  it  becomes  greater  with 
advancing  individualization. 

Not  only  does  this  hold  true  when  we  consider,  as  we 
have  just  been  doing,  the  phenomena  of  disease,  but  also 
when  we  observe  the  course  of  retrogressive  evolution, 
which  may  occur  when  a  species  is  subjected  to  unfavor- 
able conditions  for  its  self-maintenance  at  the  height  of 


RETROGRESSION  IN  EVOLUTION  197 

its  development.  Acquired  powers  may  be  forfeited  by 
long-continued  disuse ;  under  unfavorable  conditions 
organs  may  become  atrophied,  and  descendants  may  be 
dwarfed,  or  otherwise  set  back  on  the  scale  of  life  when 
compared  with  their  parental  or  related  forms.  A  single 
chapter  of  natural  history  is  enough  for  illustration,  — 
it  might  be  entitled  a  chapter  concerning  the  ways  in 
which  eyes  are  lost.  We  select  two  or  three  instances 
from  it.  There  is  a  relative  of  the  well  known  lobster, 
by  name  Eryonicus^  whose  residence  is  at  the  depth  of 
825  yards  in  the  ocean.  There  is  not  much  light  at  that 
depth  where  Eryonicus  lives.  Accordingly  he  has  dis- 
pensed with  the  well  developed  optical  apparatus  which 
his  relative,  our  friend  the  lobster,  finds  useful  where  he 
lives  at  a  less  and  better-lighted  depth.  In  Eryonicus 
the  optic  stalk  has  been  reduced,  and  at  its  extremity, 
where  in  kindred  littoral  forms  the  eye  is  borne,  there 
remains  only  a  depression,  "  as  if  the  eye  had  been  care- 
fully scooped  out."  1  Another  member  of  the  crustacean 
family,  Scolophthalmus  by  name,  which  lives  down  at  a 
depth  of  4000  yards,  possesses  still  an  eye-stalk  which 
ends  in  spines,  but  it  is  devoid  of  eyes.  There  is  one 
species  which  is  interesting  because  in  itself  it  "ex- 
hibits all  grades  of  degradation  according  to  the  depth 
at  which  it  lives.  This  creature  —  Cymonomus  —  which, 
when  near  the  surface,  has  fully  formed  eyes  upon  mov- 
able stalks,  at  a  depth  of  a  few  hundred  yards  exhibits 
movable  stalks  without  eyes;  and  at  1500  yards  the 
stalks  are  fixed  and  end  in  spines.  "  ^  We  might  add  that 
this  illustrates  the  manner  also  in  which  men  may  lose 

1  Evolution  by  Atrophj,  Int.  Scien.  Ser.,  p.  188.         2  li,xd.^  p.  190. 


198  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

their  eyes  —  their  power  of  moral  and  spiritual  vision  — 
according  to  the  depths  at  which  they  habitually  live. 

Moreover,  natural  history  records  numerous  instances 
of  retrogressive  evolution  under  too  favorable  conditions 
of  existence,  as  in  the  life  history  of  some  parasites.  A 
barnacle  has  degenerated  from  a  free  swimming  form. 
One  little  creature  which  has,  to  begin  with,  three  pairs 
of  legs  and  an  eye,  when  it  settles  down  to  comfortable 
existence  on  a  crab,  which  is  its  host,  — when,  as  it  were, 
it  becomes  content  to  hang  its  hat  on  its  father-in-law's 
hat-tree,  —  loses  after  a  while  its  eye  and  its  legs,  and 
becomes  a  mere  absorbent  nutritive  sac. 

Without  describing  other  examples  of  organic  degen- 
eracy from  entering  what  has  been  called  the  "  vicious 
circle  of  parasitism,"  we  would  call  attention  especially 
to  the  fact  that  the  possibility  of  degeneracy  bears 
direct  proportion  to  the  amount  of  life  which  has  been 
acquired.  A  special  sense,  like  the  eye,  represents  a 
long  and  arduous  achievement  of  nature ;  but  that,  as 
we  have  just  stated,  may  be  lost  through  retrogressive 
life.  The  possibility  of  loss,  of  fall,  of  death,  may  be 
said  in  general  to  grow  greater,  as  the  process  of  in- 
dividuation is  carried  further  and  higher.  The  pos- 
sibility of  fall  will  therefore  be  greatest  upon  the 
highest  plane  of  personality.  From  the  spiritual  height 
of  humanity  the  fall  has  been  the  deepest  and  the 
darkest.  There  is  no  creature  so  fallen  as  a  man  who 
bears  on  his  face  the  mark  of  the  beast.  Perversion 
of  self-conscious  intelligence  marks  the  limit  of  degen- 
eracy which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  incidental  to  evolution. 
The  sin  of  the  world  reaches  an  extreme  of  natural  re- 


RETROGRESSION  IN  EVOLUTION  199 

version  from  the  type ;  —  it  is  loss  of  the  divine  image, 
which  is  man's  birthright. 

In  this  connection  the  question  arises,  how  is  death 
to  be  regarded  in  relation  to  the  fall  of  man?  The 
naturalist  sees  that  death  entered  into  the  world  for  the 
sake  of  life,  and  that  throughout  tlie  course  of  evolu- 
tion death  has  been  a  minister  of  the  dispensation  of 
life.  It  is  not  a  sign  or  consequence  of  degeneracy,  but 
a  means  rather  of  the  rejuvenescence  and  enrichment  of 
life.  The  biblical  theologian  perceives  that  death  has 
acquired  in  man's  history  a  moral  adaptation  and  use 
over  and  above  its  original  natural  function.  It  lias  be- 
come also  a  minister  of  tlie  dispensation  of  moral  life; 
it  has  an  acquired  use  in  the  moral  order  as  a  means  of 
probation.  The  fear  of  death  is  a  mark  of  human  de- 
generacy —  a  punitive  consequence  of  man's  sin.^ 

Reversion  in  nature  before  the  plane  of  free  personal 
life  had  been  reached,  was  without  moral  character. 
We  may  regard  it  as  accidental,  if  by  accidental  we 
mean  simply  that  one  or  another  of  several  possibilities 
in  nature  has  become  actual.  There  is  no  responsibility 
in  the  germ  for  itself,  if  a  seed  fails  of  fructification ; 
there  is  no  wrong  done,  if  an  organ  is  stunted  or 
malformed  under  the  conditions  of  its  environment. 
When  Hertwig  pressed  apart  portions  of  frog's  eggs 
which  naturally  go  together,  and  under  the  pressure  of 
glass  plates  produced  imperfect  or  diminutive  embryos, 

1  We  pass  by  this  important  topic  with  a  word,  because  it  has  been  dis- 
cussed in  the  author's  Place  of  Death  in  Evnhitlon,  see  particularly  chap,  i., 
on  Tlie  Entrance  and  Use  of  Death  in  Nature ;  and  chap.  v.  on  The  Biological 
and  the  Biblical  View  of  Death.  See  also  Joues,  "The  Ascent  Through 
Christ,  pp.  168-185. 


200  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

the  responsibility  for  such  failures  of  typical  develop- 
ment was  certainly  not  in  the  frogs,  whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  responsibility  of  the  biologist  whose  in- 
telligent manipulation  produced  those  unfair  conditions 
and  predetermined  those  unnatural  frogs.  Similarly  in 
the  process  of  individuation,  up  to  man's  conscience,  at 
least,  if  there  be  any  moral  responsibility,  it  is  to  be 
located,  not  within  the  evolution  itself,  but  without  the 
evolution.  It  belongs  to  the  prior  and  predetermining 
Intelligence,  which  discloses  its  own  character  as  the 
evolution  takes  form,  and  moves  on  towards  its  issues. 
Up  to  man,  responsibility  for  evolution  lies  outside  the 
process  of  evolution ;  with  the  advent  of  man  responsi- 
bility enters  into  the  evolution.  The  original  responsibil- 
ity for  nature  is  the  divine  responsibility,  if  there  is  a 
God.  But  in  man's  moral  life  evolution  takes  on  a  new 
quality ;  it  becomes  also  a  self-responsible  evolution. 
The  primal  responsibility  of  the  Author  of  it  does  not 
cease ;  but  a  secondary  responsibility  of  the  creature 
begins.  At  the  point  of  free-spiritual  life,  the  Creator 
shares  responsibility  with  the  creation.  And  the  creat- 
ure receives  self-obligation  from  the  Creator.  Man  not 
only  is  made,  he  becomes  a  maker.  Man  through  his 
living  makes  his  own  soul,  or  he  unmakes  it.  So  our 
human  life  is  represented  by  the  Christ  as  an  endurance 
through  which  we  win  soul,  —  "  In  your  patience,"  he 
said,  "  ye  shall  win  your  souls."  In  the  spiritual  order, 
soul  is  to  be  acquired  from  life  —  it  is  something  for  us 
to  win.     Or  soul  may  be  lost  out  of  our  lives. ^ 

1  The  scientific  evidence  of  the  statement  above  that  responsibilty  for 
evolution  has  entered  with  man  into  the  evolution,  is  to  be  found  in  the 


RETROGRESSION  IN  EVOLUTION  201 

If  we  approach  in  this  natural  way  the  fact  of  retro- 
gression in  the  life  of  man,  we  shall  find  a  very  simple 
answer  to  the  difficulty  with  which  over  anxious  the- 
ologians would  put  a  stop  to  any  evolutionary  science 
with  their  doctrine  of  man's  fall.  How,  they  ask,  can 
evolution  account  for  the  fall?  Very  naturally,  and 
also  very  profoundly,  we  answer.  The  most  awful 
doctrine  of  the  possibility  of  fall  is  opened  by  an 
evolutionary  philosophy.  It  is  possibility  of  fall  down 
the  whole  ascent  of  life.  There  may  be  fearful  descent 
from  nature's  spiritual  height.  The  degeneracy  of  man 
may  be  moral  as  well  as  physical ;  for  at  the  height  of 
evolution  where  man  stands,  and  from  which  he  may 
fall,  a  self-responsible  life  has  been  gained. 

This  evolutionary  doctrine  of  man's  fall  escapes, 
however,  the  consequence  that  it  must  be  necessarily  a 
failure  of  the  evolution  itself.  It  does  not  follow, 
though  man  falls,  that  all  is  lost.  It  does  not  follow 
from  any  degeneracy  of  human  sin  that  evolution  as  a 
whole  may  not  prove  to  be  beneficent.  For,  as  may  be 
seen  in  many  instances,  an  individual  organism  may  fail 
of  vital  adaptation  to  its  environment,  and  be  cast  aside, 
while  the  evolution  of  life  goes  successfully  on.  A 
variety  may  survive  for  a  season,  and  then  be  found 
wanting;  species  may  follow  species  across  the  field  of 
life,   and  disappear;   but   the  evolution  is   not  thereby 

facts  which  show  man's  influence  in  changing  the  natural  course  of  events. 
Man  lives  and  works,  not  merely  as  a  product  of  evolution,  but  as  himself  a 
factor  of  evolution.  His  action  modifies  to  some  extent  the  course  of 
nature  beneath  him  ;  and,  within  limits,  he  determines  the  direction  of  his 
own  evolution.  The  law  of  natural  selection  is  modified  by  the  higher  law 
of  conscious  choice. 


202  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

frustrated.  All  the  while  it  may  be  marching  on 
through  defeats  to  triumph.  Within  the  elastic  but 
infrustrable  lines  of  the  existing  order,  as  in  a  beneficent 
network  of  divine  decrees,  under  the  beneficent  law  of 
the  universe  as  one  good  whole,  our  free  personality 
has  its  sphere,  finds  room  for  its  action,  and  meets  with 
limits  and  bounds  also  to  its  possible  fall  and  evil. 

Moreover,  it  is  thus  seen  to  be  but  a  superficial  view 
to  regard  man's  fall  as  a  fall  upwards.  It  is  in  itself 
considered  a  descent,  nothing  but  a  descent,  and  never 
an  ascent.  No  retrogression  taken  by  itself  can  be  re- 
garded as  a  step  forwards.  Man's  fall  is  a  fall  away 
from  his  true  type.  Sin  is  a  plunge  downwards,  and 
into  darkest  depths. 

But  while  it  is  man's  fall  downwards,  at  the  same 
time  it  is  never  a  fall  out  of  the  evolution ;  it  is  included 
in   the   vast  beneficence  of  the  whole   process  of  life. 
Retrogression  is  provided  for  in  the  evolution ;  a  falling 
away  is  not  a  falling  out  of  the  scope  and  compass  of  the 
evolution.     In  itself  a  defeat,  in  itself  man's  sin,  it  may 
nevertheless  as  a  part  of  the  whole,  and  as  a  moment  of 
life,  serve  other  purpose  and  confirm  in  its  results  life's 
eventual  victory.     The  advance  is  made  not  by  means 
of  the  fall,  as  mere  naturalism  might  say ;  neither  is  it 
made  in  spite  of  the  fall,  as  sheer  supernaturalism  might 
declare;   the  advance  is  made  by  the  evolution  which 
moves  on  through  the  fall  and  beyond  it,  as  was  deter- 
mined even  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.     The  one 
divine  movement,  within  which  scope  has  been  allowed 
for  the  play  of  life  and  the  exercise  of  human  freedom, 
carries  all   along  with  it  to  its    infrustrable    goal.     It 


RETROGRESSION  IN  EVOLUTION  203 

carries  man's  fall  on  to  its  triumph  of  creative  and 
redeeming  love.  There  is  nothing  unnatural  or  incon- 
ceivable in  this.  Man  may  rush  with  all  speed  towards 
the  west,  while  the  great  world,  swinging  on  its  axis, 
quietly  carries  him  eastward  into  the  dawn.  Man  by 
his  own  motion  cannot  escape  the  rising  sun.  So  the 
movement  of  evolution,  the  divine  movement  of  it  as  a 
whole,  shall  bear  man's  personal  history  of  sin  on  with 
it  to  the  coming  day  of  the  Lord. 

We  have  been  careful  to  make  these  distinctions  in 
order  that  no  vague  moral  indifference  may  be  thrown 
over  the  familiar  facts  of  human  degeneracy.  For  the 
individual,  under  any  true  and  wholesome  evolutionary 
conception,  sin  is  still  hateful ;  but  for  our  human  hope 
and  trust,  under  an  evolutionary  conception  large 
enough  to  comprehend  the  forces  of  redemption,  even 
the  sin  of  the  world  may  be  regarded,  to  apply  a  char- 
acteristic German  phrase,  as  an  overcome  standpoint. 

One  other  aspect  of  degeneration  in  nature  should  be 
noticed  in  this  connection ;  for  it  suggests  some  possible 
ulterior  use  for  the  outlying  spiritual  universe  of  man's 
history  of  sin  upon  this  earth.  We  refer  to  the  highly 
interesting  fact,  which  has  often  been  noticed  by  natu- 
ralists, that  retrogression  in  nature  may  serve  to  intro- 
duce a  new  variety,  and  thereby  promote  some  further 
development  of  life.  Moreover,  the  reduction  or  loss  of 
some  parts  of  an  organism  may  result  in  the  higher 
development  of  others  and  the  perfection  of  the  organ- 
ism as  a  whole.  Now  the  spiritual  universe  is  to  be 
conceived  as  one  moral  whole.  We  are  to  think  of  it 
as  an  organic  unity.     According  to  the  Scriptures  the 


204  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

spiritual  universe  is  one  moral  order.  The  analogy 
which  may  be  drawn  from  natural  degeneration,  sug- 
gests, therefore,  that  there  may  be  ulterior  reactions  for 
good  upon  the  whole  moral  universe  from  the  moral 
history  of  this  world.  It  was  an  apostle  who  spoke  of 
himself  in  deadly  trial  as  made  "a  spectacle  to  the 
world,  both  to  angels  and  to  men."  (1  Cor.  iv.  9.) 
We  do  not  yet  know  the  further  and  larger  organic 
relations  of  man's  life  to  the  entire  spiritual  universe. 
There  may  lie  in  the  remoter  consequences  of  human 
sin  and  suffering  a  vaster  beneficence  than  we  may 
know. 

The  further  vital  inquiry  into  which  the  course  of 
our  argument  now  directly  runs,  relates  to  the  restora- 
tive energy  of  evolution.  This  also  shall  be  for  us  first 
a  question  of  fact:  Does  evolution,  taken  as  a  whole, 
tend  towards  the  removal  of  degeneracy?  Are  decay 
and  death  in  evolution's  larger  use  rendered  serviceable 
to  life  ?  And  if  working  through  nature  there  is  to  be 
discovered  hint  or  sign  of  any  principle  of  restoration, 
may  that  same  principle  be  completed  in  some  still 
diviner  method  of  human  redemption  ?  Still  further  is 
it  possible  scientifically  to  imagine  that  through  man's 
life  of  moral  reversion  as  a  finally  eliminated  variation, 
some  vaster  good  may  be  gained,  and  for  the  whole 
spiritual  universe  ?  Such  inquiries  belong  to  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER   X 

RESTORATION   IN    EVOLUTION 

We  shall  search  first  over  the  lower  plane  of  animal 
life  for  signs  of  the  working  of  any  restorative  energies, 
which  may  throw  light  upon  the  character  and  ultimate 
tendencies  of  evolution. 

We  observe  at  the  very  beginning  a  certain  conserva- 
tive power  in  the  germ  —  its  inherent  tendency  to  hold 
itself  true  to  its  type.  An  original  and  persistent  con- 
servatism resides  in  the  fidelity  of  every  germ  or  seed 
to  its  specific  character.  A  primal  restorative  tendency 
in  living  nature  appears  in  the  constitutional  reluc- 
tance at  least  of  the  germinal  matter  to  transmit  bodily 
mutilations. 

We  are  aware  that  we  touch  here  upon  one  of  the  most 
controverted  points  of  modern  biology.  It  has  been  a 
much  disputed  question  whether  either  virtues  or  defects, 
which  are  acquired  by  parents  during  their  lifetime,  can 
be  directly  transmitted  to  their  offspring.  For  the  sake 
of  clearness,  and  because  of  its  importance  in  this  con- 
nection, we  would  state  definitely  this  problem  to  which 
we  have  previously  referred. 

In  every  animal  body  above  the  protozoa^  two  kinds  of 
cells  exist,  —  the  germ  cells,  through  which  life  is  re- 
produced, and  the  somatic  cells,  by  means  of  which  the 

205 


206  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

body  is  buiJt  up.  These  two  kinds  of  cells  are  discrim- 
inated by  nature  very  early  in  the  life -history  of  the  egg. 
Now  the  question  concerning  acquired  bodily  character- 
istics in  the  last  analysis  of  it  is  simply  this :  Can  modi- 
fications which  have  been  received  by  an  animal  during 
its  lifetime  in  its  body-cells,  be  given  over  directly  to 
the  germ  cells,  and  through  them  inherited  hy  its  off- 
spring ?  That  is  a  still  mooted  question.  One  school 
of  biologists  maintain  that  it  is  and  can  be  done;  the 
other  school  strenuously  deny  the  fact  of  any  such  direct 
transmission  of  acquired  bodily  characters.  Those  who 
affirm  it  are  known  as  the  Neo-Lamarckians ;  those  who 
deny  it  as  the  Neo-Darwinians.  The  evidence  is  con- 
flicting and  as  yet  unsatisfactory. 

Bodily  modifications  acquired  by  a  parent  are  cer- 
tainly not  taken  up  easily  and  at  once  into  the  germ- 
plasm  and  transmitted  to  a  descendant.  We  cannot  by 
our  virtues  or  our  vices  directly  and  certainly  either 
make  or  spoil  our  children.  It  is  well  that  we  cannot. 
The  continuous  germ-plasm  of  life  resents  direct  inter- 
ference. It  tends  to  restore  in  the  offspring  in  its  nat- 
ural integrity  the  life  which  may  have  been  mutilated 
in  the  parental  form.  The  germinal  matter  is  tenacious 
of  its  own  vital  determination.  It  maintains  with  much 
persistence  its  specific  and  its  individual  characters,  al- 
though possibly  under  some  conditions  it  may  be  pois- 
oned or  tainted.  We  are  clearly  within  the  limits  of 
ascertained  science  when  we  hold  that  nature  in  its 
germs  shows  a  conservative  and  self-restorative  ten- 
dency. At  the  primal  sources  of  life  any  mutilating  or 
degenerating   influences   are   resisted   by   the   germinal 


RESTORATION   IN  EVOLUTION  207 

tendency  to  remain  true  to  the  type.  Variation  indeed 
is  permitted  and  carefully  provided  for  in  fertilization ; 
sex  enters  early  into  nature  for  life's  rejuvenescence  and 
diversification:  but  in  the  fertilized  seed  or  eg^  of  plants 
or  animals,  variation,  which  is  necessary  for  the  enrich- 
ment of  life,  is  speedily  checked  and  firmly  held  within 
bounds  by  heredity.  Nature  is  thus  conservative  as  well 
as  progressive  from  the  start.  She  is  both  at  once,  and 
within  the  same  little  germinal  dot  of  protoplasm. 

We  notice  still  further  that  a  conservative  tendency, 
which  is  thus  seen  to  be  inherent  within  the  germ, 
characterizes  the  organism  as  one  whole ;  and  that,  per- 
vading every  part,  it  acts  as  a  restorative  check  and 
balance  whenever  variation  in  any  direction  threatens 
the  existence  of  a  species.  Without  raising  just  now 
the  strictly  biological  issue  whether  this  energy  resides 
in  the  organism  as  an  inherent  force  of  growth, ^  or 
whether  it  is  the  resultant  of  all  the  inner  and  outward 
influences  which  act  upon  an  organism,  and  which  are 
expressed  in  its  form;  our  immediate  insistence  is  that 
as  matter  of  fact  some  check  and  wholesome  virtue 
works  in  the  life-history  of  every  creature  against  exces- 
sive or  hurtful  variation.  In  some  way,  not  easily 
understood  by  our  science,  a  plant  or  an  animal  body 
exerts  a  restraining  and  even  a  corrective  influence  over 
its  parts  and  members,  to  prevent  undue  development  or 
variation  in  any  one  direction  to  its  too  great  prejudice 
as  one  living  thing.  Our  biologists  are  now  recognizing 
among  the  factors  of  evolution  to  be  dealt  with  this 
vital   influence  of   the  whole  over   the  growing  parts. 

1  The  bathmism,  "  growtli-forcc,"  of  Cope. 


208  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

Under  the  influence  of  natural  selection,  and  through 
the  co-ordination  of  all  the  parts,  growth  too  rapid  or 
too  extreme  on  this  side  or  on  that,  in  this  member  or 
another,  is  controlled.  Life,  moving  this  way  or  that, 
too  far  or  too  fast,  is  pulled  back,  and  sent  forward  in 
the  one  straight  way ;  the  balance  is  finely  kept,  as  is 
best  for  the  organism  as  a  whole.  Symmetry  —  itself  a 
marvellous  factor  in  evolution  —  is  one  of  nature's  first 
laws.     But  more  than  this  remains  to  be  noticed. 

It  is  further  to  be  observed  that  organic  matter  within 
certain  limits  possesses  a  self-regenerative  power.  In 
many  instances  a  lost  part  of  a  body  may  be  restored,  or 
from  a  single  surviving  part  an  entire  body  may  be 
made  anew.  The  phenomena  of  regeneration  among 
plants  and  animals  are  so  well  known  that  we  need  only 
briefly  summarize  them.  It  is  a  matter  of  common 
observation  that  a  shell-fish  may  lose  a  claw,  or  a  lizard 
its  tail,  and  the  loss  be  made  good.  The  skilled  gar- 
dener takes  advantage  of  this  self-regenerative  power, 
when  by  means  of  slips  and  cuttings  he  increases  his 
stock  for  the  market.  "Cultivators  of  bath  sponges 
bed  out  little  fragments  to  keep  up  a  convenient  sup- 
ply. "  1  The  Abbe  Trembley,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
performed  experiments  upon  Hydras,  which  furnish  the 
classical  illustration  of  natural  regeneration.  He 
pleased  his  friends,  and  troubled  the  Church,  by  showing 
how  a  part  of  a  polyp  can  create  itself  anew  into  a 
whole  polyp.  If  a  Hydra  be  cut  in  two  across  the  mid- 
dle, or  divided  longitudinally,  from  the  halves  two  per- 
fect Hydras  may  be  formed. 

1  Geddes  and  Thomson,  Evolution  of  Sex,  p.  188,  ed.  1895. 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  209 

Of  this  regenerative  power  of  nature  it  may  be  said 
that  it  seems  to  belong  originally  to  organic  matter,  and. 
that  it  is  allied  to  the  powers  and  processes  of  growth  in 
general.  Living  matter  to  a  certain  extent  is  self- 
recuperative  under  the  same  conditions  in  which  it  may 
live  and  grow  at  all.  Regeneration,  like  growth,  is  a 
primal  virtue  of  organic  matter.  The  cells  of  a  tissue 
or  organ  at  points  of  casual  wounds  possess  not  only 
their  specific  properties,  but  also  the  characters  of  the 
whole  body,  so  that  they  can  become  buds  from  which  a 
lost  part  may  be  reproduced,  or  a  new  organism  be 
formed.^ 

This  regenerative  power,  however,  as  we  have  been 
careful  to  say,  is  a  limited  one.  It  is  far  from  being  co- 
extensive with  evolution.  It  diminishes  as  specializa- 
tion of  parts  increases.  It  disappears  entirely  from  the 
most  developed  organs  of  the  body.  There  is  little  of  it 
enough  left,  we  may  think,  in  our  anatomy.  We  may 
sometimes  wonder  why  we  do  not  possess  more  of  this 
power  of  self-repair,  which  the  lower  creatures  seem  to 
have  in  such  abundance.  They  can  restore  their  own 
heads  when  they  are  cut  off.  But  with  us  only  Chris- 
tian Science,  so-called,  might  think  a  lost  head  on  again. 
Even  that  fondly  assumed  independence  of  matter  might 
seem  slightly  physiological,  if  man  had  left  so  much  as  a 
worm's  power  of  self -renewal,  and  by  taking  thought  of 
his  stature  could  add  to  it.     Dentistry  might  be  a  need- 

1  Hevtwig,  The  Biological  Problem  of  To-dai/,  p.  48.  Weisraann's  view- 
that  regeneration  is  acquired  through  natural  selection  is  interesting,  but 
it  is  neglected  above,  as  the  manner  of  the  origin  of  this  regenerative 
power  does  not  affect  the  interpretation  which  we  are  making  of  the  fact 
of  it. 

14 


210  THROUGH   SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

less  art,  if  we  had  not  lost  in  our  development  the  power 
of  making  over  our  own  bones.  It  is  only  a  remnant  of 
nature's  original  restorative  virtue  which  the  highest 
animal  organization  retains.  But  the  original  tendency 
is  significant.  It  is  indicative  of  the  first  intention  of 
nature,  that  it  is  in  its  beginnings  restorative  as  well 
as  creative. 

Another  interesting  class  of  facts  come  under  our 
observation,  which  serve  to  illustrate  also  a  certain 
substitutional  power  in  nature.  It  is  the  power  to  make 
one  part  take  the  place  of,  or  to  do  the  work  of  some 
other  part  for  the  life  of  the  organism.  This  power 
may  be  observed  in  several  related  yet  distinct  manifes- 
tations of  its  vitality.  One  of  these  is  illustrated  in  the 
remarkable  feat  which  a  Titon  larva  performs  when, 
having  lost  its  sight,  it  reproduces  from  an  adjacent 
epithelial  cell  the  lens  of  its  own  eye.  Thus  it  takes  a 
cell  which  had  its  proper  natural  use,  and  from  it  makes 
a  cell  adapted  to  a  wholly  different  function.  It  sub- 
stitutes in  its  economy  for  the  sake  of  vision  one  part, 
or  the  transformation  of  one  part,  for  another  lost  part.^ 
To  give  another  example,  if  a  cut  be  made  in  a  sea- 
rose,  and  the  fissure  be  kept  open,  in  a  little  while,  from 
the  surrounding  cells,  a  ncAV  mouth  will  be  reproduced 
with  a  row  of  tentacles  around  it. 

1  Much  interest  has  recently  been  excited  in  biological  circles  over  this 
reproduction  of  the  lens  in  some  organisms.  Wolff  regards  it  as  an 
extremely  teleological  adaptation ;  —  the  cell  is  transformed  into  a  lens  for 
the  purpose  of  sight.  A.  Fischel,  on  the  contrary,  seeks  to  account  for  it 
mechanically  as  a  "  topographical  "  process  ;  —  the  adaptations  take  place 
under  the  influence  of  the  surrounding  parts.  See  a  summary  of  the  dis- 
cussion in  Virchow's  Jahreshericht  ueber  die  Leistungen,  etc.,  1901,  Bd.  i. 
Ab.  i.  ss.  83-8G.    Also,  Morgan,  T.  H.,  Regeneration,  p.  203. 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  211 

In  a  somewhat  different  way  this  substitutionary 
power  of  nature  linds  illustration  in  the  manner  in  which 
one  organ  may  take  upon  itself  the  functions  of  another 
injured  organ.  Or  one  part  of  an  organ  may  be  enabled 
to  do  the  work  of  another  part  besides  its  own  task. 
For  example,  the  pathologists  inform  us  that  if  one 
kidney  is  removed,  the  other  becomes  enlarged,  and  it 
will  attempt  to  do  the  work  of  two.  So  also  wdien  por- 
tions of  the  liver  are  extirpated,  the  remaining  part 
begins  a  compensative  growth,  by  means  of  which  the 
functions  of  the  liver  may  still  be  discharged.  "  Under 
extraordinary  circumstances  almost  every  organ  of  the 
body  can  do  more  than  the  amount  of  its  normal  activity ; 
it  possesses,  as  one  may  say,  a  reserve  power,  exceed- 
ing its  usual  work,  which  may  still  further  be  used."  ^ 
Similarly  we  may  regard  the  adaptive  power  of  the  mus- 
cular and  connective  tissues  for  uses  beyond  their  nat- 
ural wont,  in  case  of  injuries  or  demands  upon  the  body 
which  otherwise  might  not  be  met.  For  instance,  Koux 
has  shown  the  wonderful  manner  in  which  the  fibrous 
connective  tissue  in  the  caudal  fin  of  the  dolphin  is 
adapted  to  a  rudder  plate,  as  it  is  moved  in  many  direc- 
tions by  the  action  of  the  muscles,  and  thereby  rendered 
in  special  parts  now  stiff,  and  again  flexible. ^  This 
limited  power  of  substitution  of  the  work  or  function  of 
one  organ  for  another,  shows  again  the  strong  restorative 
energy  which  is  inherent  in  living  matter.  Nature, 
when  foiled  in  the  effort  to  replace  an  injured  member, 
may  stimulate  another  organ  to  do  extra  work. 

1  Hertwig,  Die  Zelle,  s.  1G5. 

2  See,  for  this  and  other  instances,  Hertwig,  Opus  cit.  pp.  172-175: 
Herbert  Spencer,  Princ.  of  BiuJ.  i.  §  60. 


212  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

Still  another  kind  of  natural  substitution  is  to  be 
mentioned;  it  has  been  called  anticipatory  substitution, 
or  the  temporary  use  of  some  provision  until  a  better 
form  for  the  same  purpose  shall  be  grown.  A  note- 
worthy instance  of  this  kind  of  predictive  substitution 
is  found  in  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  backbone 
in  the  Vertebrate  embryos.  Professor  Thomson  has 
thus  described  it :  "  In  all  Vertebrate  embryos  there  is, 
for  some  time  at  least,  a  supporting  axial  rod  or  noto- 
chord,  developed  along  the  dorsal  median  line  of  the 
primitive  gut.  This  persists  throughout  life  in  the 
lancelet  and  lamprey  and  a  few  old-fasliioned  types,  but 
from  fishes  onwards  it  is  gradually  replaced  in  develop- 
ment by  the  backbone.  The  notochord  does  not  become 
the  backbone,  which  has  a  different  (so-called  meso- 
dermic)  origin,  but  is  replaced  by  it.  The  notochord  is 
a  temporary  structure,  around  which  the  vertebral 
column  is  constructed,  as  a  tall  brick  chimney  might  be 
built  around  an  internal  scaffolding  of  wood."  Mr. 
Thomson  adds:  "Of  course  we  require  to  know  more 
about  the  way  in  which  the  old-fashioned  structure  pre- 
pares the  way  for  and  stimulates  the  growth  of  its 
future  substitute,  but  the  general  idea  of  one  organ  lead- 
ing on  to  another  is  suggestive."  ^ 

In  this  connection  we  may  observe  also  a  somewhat 
kindred  power  which  may  be  characterized  as  a  persist- 
ent tendency  in  evolution  to  find  new  methods  when  old 
ones  seem  to  have  reached  the  end  of  their  usefulness. 
Perhaps  this  characteristic  might  be  called  a  reforma- 
tive rather  than  a  restorative  power  of  nature.     You  can 

1  Science  of  Life,  p.  137. 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  213 

observe  it  in  general  by  a  mere  glance  at  the  develop- 
ment of  the  chief  animal  types.  When  one  way  of  de- 
velopment seemed  blocked,  and  there  was  no  progress 
farther  in  that  direction,  evolution  found  another  way, 
and  went  forward  again  on  that  new  road.  One  orig- 
inal way  of  life  was  tried  in  the  mollusks.  Tlie  animal 
threw  a  protective  shell  over  itself,  and  settled  down 
comfortably  in  the  mud.  When  irritated  by  a  parasite, 
its  easy  and  indolent  defence  was  simply  to  secrete  a 
pearl.  But  the  protective  shell  becomes  eventually  a 
hindrance  and  prevents  life  from  gaining  sense  and 
freedom.     The  oyster  is  conservatism  in  its  shell. 

Soon  nature  takes  up  another  model.  The  vital 
organs  are  still  protected  within  a  horny  covering,  but 
the  body  is  divided  into  segments,  muscles  are  devel- 
oped, and  organs  of  sense  and  locomotion.  More  atten- 
tion is  paid  to  brains;  and  insects  like  the  busy  and 
intelligent  bees,  represent  nature's  next  method  of  re- 
forming her  vital  moulds.  But  erelong  that  way  of 
development  seems  blocked.  The  model  chosen  is 
excellent  for  swift  flight,  and  some  head  also  is  gained 
in  the  insects ;  but  an  external  kind  of  skeleton  has  its 
limitations,  and  the  insects,  after  starting  out  in  a 
promising  direction,  came  to  a  standstill  in  size  and  in- 
telligence ;  —  nothing  more  excellent  seems  to  remain  to 
be  achieved  in  that  direction.  Nature,  not  to  be  foiled, 
finds  a  new  structural  plan.  This  time  in  the  verte- 
brates she  puts  the  skeleton  inside,  and  tries  again. 
Huge  reptiles  are  produced,  great  birds  and  uncouth 
monsters  destined  to  receive  in  time  as  uncouth  Latin 
names  in  our  zoology.     But  again  the  way  of  progress  in 


214  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

the  development  of  muscle  opens  no  further  possibility. 
The  greatest  athletic  age  was  the  carboniferous  period. 
There  were  giants  in  the  land,  and  in  the  water,  in  those 
days,  only  they  had  little  intelligence  to  do  team  work. 
Again  nature  improves  her  working  model.  This  time 
she  pays  special  attention  to  the  nervous  organization ; 
that  takes  the  chief  place  in  the  development,  until  at 
last  the  race  ceases  to  be  to  the  swift  and  the  battle  to 
the  strong,  and  a  man's  life  consists  not  in  his  brawn 
but  in  his  brains.  We  might  form  some  idea  of  this 
general  character  of  evolution,  if  we  should  compare  it 
with  the  improvement  which  man  has  made  in  building 
vessels,  putting  side  by  side  the  many  successive  models 
from  the  original  dug-out  of  a  savage,  or  a  Chinese 
junk,  or  a  Nova  Scotia  schooner  up  to  the  finest  yacht, 
or  the  swiftest  ocean  greyhound.  Yet  nature's  work  of 
improving  her  models  has  been  a  greater  —  shall  we  not 
say  —  a  more  thoughtful  development. 

What,  then,  we  are  now  ready  to  ask,  is  the  full  and 
final  significance  of  such  facts  as  these,  which  show  a 
conserving,  regenerative,  and  in  a  sense  reforming 
energy  and  tendency  in  the  nature-process  ? 

The  mechanics  of  bodily  regeneration  have  constituted 
a  distinct  problem  in  biology.  How  was  this  power 
originally  gained,  and  how  or  why  in  the  higher  organ- 
isms has  it  been  repressed  ?  This  is  a  twofold  question. 
If  we  assume  that  in  its  origin  this  power  of  an  organism 
to  reproduce  a  lost  part  of  itself  is  something  very  like 
its  natural  power  of  growing,  and  that  regeneration  orig- 
inally is  associated  with  growth-power,  still  the  question 
remains,  How  has  it  happened  that  this  ability  to  repair 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  215 

loss  lias  diminished  with  increasing  organization  until 
among  the  higher  animals  almost  no  regenerative  power 
remains  ?  Mechanically  this  may  possibly  be  explained 
as  a  consequence  of  increased  differentiation  of  struc- 
ture. The  structure  may  become  so  specialized,  and 
each  specialized  organ  may  represent  so  long  a  course 
of  development  into  which  so  many  different  factors 
have  entered,  that  the  primal  regenerative  power,  char- 
acteristic of  simpler  tissues  and  less  complex  cells,  may 
have  ceased  to  be  sufficient  for  the  task  of  restoring 
anew  a  mutilated  or  lost  organ,  such  as  an  eye  or  a  lung. 
So  far,  then,  biology  may  go  in  explanation  of  the  facts 
of  natural  regeneration.  Interpretative  philosophy  has 
next  to  take  them  up,  and  to  consider  their  value  as 
indications  of  the  character  of  evolution. 

We  may  rationally  understand  this  tendency  in  the 
nature -process  to  repair  loss  as  a  disclosure  of  its  first 
good  intent.  Natural  regeneration  is  a  sign  of  original 
good  character  in  evolution.  If  evolution  be  morally 
chargeable  with  waste,  and  with  leaving  open  possibili- 
ties of  evil,  it  must  also  be  credited  with  a  primal  ten- 
dency to  repair  loss.  If  nature  admits  evil,  it  also 
reacts  against  evil  whenever  it  becomes  actual.  Nature 
has  at  least  so  much  moral  character  from  the  start  as 
this  restorative  power  may  signify. 

Again  the  law  of  the  diminution  of  regenerative  power 
appears  to  be  part  of  the  cost  of  higher  life.  It  is  loss 
for  gain.  This  likewise  is  a  good  sign.  Natural  selec- 
tion carries  with  it  the  corollary  that  the  utmost  possible 
shall  be  made  of  living  matter.  All  that  can  be  gained 
is  to  be  won  from  tlie  strugrorle  of  existence.     Now  for 


216  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

the  sake  of  making,  or  to  speak  scientifically  without 
reference  to  ends,  in  the  course  of  making  the  utmost 
possible  out  of  living  matter,  a  decrease  of  its  self-re- 
storative power  has  become  unavoidable ;  it  may  prove 
to  be  a  mechanical  necessity,  if  you  please.  The  fail- 
ure of  this  power  becomes  thus  a  necessary  part  of  the 
cost  of  evolution.  It  must  lose  much,  that  it  may  gain 
more.  It  is  the  price  paid  for  advancement  along  the 
line  of  organization.  In  order  that  a  finely  specialized 
organ,  like  the  eye  or  the  brain,  may  fulfil  its  function, 
its  total  living  energy  —  the  sum  of  the  energies  of  its 
cells  —  is  concentrated  on  its  specific  activity;  its  whole 
available  vitality  becomes  engaged  in  fulfilling  its  special 
function ;  it  has  no  surplus  left  by  which  to  renew  itself, 
if  it  suffers  loss.  Very  much  as  a  man  absorbed  in  a 
work  which  tasks  his  highest  powers,  loses  aptitude,  and 
has  no  strength  for  lesser  work ;  so  finely  specialized  or- 
gans are  devoted  with  all  their  vital  strength  to  the  task 
which  they  are  called  to  render  to  the  body.  The  lower 
animal  power  of  self-restoration  is  sacrificed  to  the  higher 
function.  Nature  never  seems  to  hesitate  to  make  sac- 
rifices for  good  results.  Nature  does  not  stop  to  count 
the  cost  when  an  advance  in  any  vital  value  is  to  be 
gained. 

Such,  then,  being  the  restorative  system  of  nature 
below  man,  we  must  next  inquire  whether  any  analo- 
gous principle  of  restoration  is  apparent  on  the  higher 
plane  of  personal  life.  From  the  unity  of  nature  we 
should  expect  to  find  evidences  of  the  working  of  some 
restorative  energy   in   human   life   and   society.      We 


RESTORATION  IN   EVOLUTION  217 

might  suppose  that  evolution  would  not  lose  utterly  this 
primal  benignancy,  which  its  regenerative  tendencies 
manifest,  when  man  appears  on  the  dizzy  heights  of 
freedom,  to  experience  his  awful  fall,  and  to  live  in  the 
misery  and  shame  of  his  civilizations.  We  should  natu- 
rally look  for  some  new  manifestation  of  this  original 
character  of  evolution,  and  possibly  for  some  larger 
scope  and  power  of  it  in  the  sphere  of  the  moral  and  the 
social  life  of  humanity. 

In  one   respect,  as   already  observed,  the   power   of 
reo-eneration  has  drawn  near  its  end  in  man's  life.     There 
is  not  much  more  of  it  left  physiologically.     A  little 
healing  power  of  nature  is  left  in  us ;  and  it  is  possible 
also  that  man  may  possess  physiologically  some  power  of 
acquiring  immunity  against   certain   forms  of   disease. 
A  recent  evolutionist  indeed  has  gone  so  far  as  to  sug- 
gest  that  a  natural   immunity  of   mankind  from  alco- 
holism  might   be   acquired.     If   we    do  not  by  severe 
artificial  legal  selection  eliminate  the  drunkard,  natural 
selection,  he  thinks,  in  the  course  of  time  might  pro- 
duce a  human  species  immune  from  the  effects  of  alco- 
holic   drinks;    only   it   is   added   that   in   this  way  of 
temperance  reform  the  world  "  will  never  be  thoroughly 
sober  until  it  has  first  been  thoroughly  drunk."  ^     Prob- 
ably hereafter  more  restorative  power  for  our  life  may 
be  called  forth  and  directed  by  sanitary  efficiency  and 
medical  knowledge  to  the  relief  of  much  sickness,  suffer- 
ing, and  waste. 

With  this  primal  principle  of  natural  restoration  to 
guide  us  we  approach  the  problem  of  evil  in  our  human 

1  C.  A.  Keid,  The  Present  Evolution  of  Man,  p.  370. 


218  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

life,  and  behold  prophetic  light  thrown  upon  it  from  the 
past.  Nature  has  not  written  over  any  gate  of  life, 
"  Abandon  hope  all  ye  that  enter  here."  Even  when  one 
way  has  ended  in  a  blank  wall,  erelong  another  gate  has 
been  found  and  flung  open,  and  life  has  passed  on  rejoic- 
ing and  hoping  again.  Neither  nature  nor  Christianity 
is  a  pessimist.  There  was  one  pessimist,  indeed,  among 
the  twelve  disciples  ;  but  he  was  that  man  who  went  out 
in  the  dark,  and  hanged  himself.  He  knew  not  that  the 
wasted  ointment,  as  the  story  of  it  should  be  told 
wherever  the  gospel  is  preached,  would  be  worth  more 
even  in  relieving  the  wants  of  the  poor,  than  it  could 
have  been  had  every  wasted  perfume  of  it  been  turned 
into  bar  of  solid  gold.  We  have  found  how  natural 
wastefulness  beneath  us  may  be  eventually  a  benefit  and 
service  for  life.  In  moi'al  continuation  of  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  regenerative  vital  power  there  may  be  redemption 
for  man  even  at  the  cost  of  sacrifice.  On  the  higher  plane 
of  personality  power  to  restore  a  limb  or  an  eye  has  been 
lost;  but  power  to  renew  a  mind  or  to  redeem  a  soul 
may  be  waiting  its  appointed  hour  of  manifestation. 
Nature's  earlier  virtue  of  regenerative  energy  may  be 
carried  in  the  highest  sphere  to  full  completion  in  some 
redeeming  grace.  Again  it  is  a  question  of  fact  and  of 
history.  Has  the  Spiritual  Power  in  which  the  universe 
is  constituted,  revealed  itself  in  human  life  and  history 
as  a  redeeming  potency  and  promise  ?  There  would  be 
no  unnaturalness  in  its  working,  if  in  our  moral  life  we 
should  find  evidence  of  its  operation.  If  from  obser- 
vation of  human  affairs,  or  from  the  special  course  of 
man's  history  from  Moses  to  the  Christ,  or  in  the  day 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  219 

of  his  grace  ever  since,  we  find  good  reason  to  believe 
that  there  has  been  and  is  a  renewing  energy  of  the 
Spirit,  working  in  vital  union  with  man's  life,  and  that 
humanity  is  capable  of  such  spiritual  regeneration ;  there 
would  be  in  such  belief  nothing  unnatural,  nothing  con- 
trary to  the  natural  capacity  of  life  for  regeneration 
from  the  same  source  and  power  from  which  it  came 
forth.  Capacity  for  regeneration,  in  each  order  of  life 
after  its  kind,  is  one  of  the  essential  vital  capacities. 
The  Christian  redemption  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  some- 
thing apart,  as  an  isolated  and  artificial  provision  of 
divine  grace  for  man  ;  it  falls  rather  into  the  univer- 
sal order,  and  it  will  bring  to  highest  and  farthest 
ethical  and  spiritual  completion  one  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples in  which  nature  itself  is  organized.  For  among 
other  laws  nature  is  made  on  a  restorative  principle. 
There  is,  as  the  Christian  word  assures  us,  an  eternal  pur- 
pose of  redemption. 

It  must  suffice  for  our  object  only  to  glance  now  at 
the  operation  of  the  natural  principle  of  restoration  as 
it  is  manifested  on  the  plane  of  personal  life.  Further 
discussion  of  it  belongs  not  to  natural  theology,  within 
which  our  present  discussion  is  confined,  but  to  the 
philosophy  of  history,  and  especially  to  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  grace. 

We  may  mention,  however,  two  aspects  of  the  vital 
principle  of  restoration  in  its  higher  and  freer  working 
on  the  moral  plane,  which  may  receive  some  illustrative 
light  from  tlie  lower  world. 

We  refer  for  one  to  a  working  principle  of  nature 
which  may  be  called  the   law  of   release  of   spiritual 


220  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

energy,  as  the  evolution  advances.  Not  only  is  it  true 
that  better  adaptations  for  intelligent  use  are  gained, 
but  also  it  is  true  that  with  improved  forms  intelli- 
gence, immanent  in  nature,  is  set  free  for  greater  exer- 
cise of  its  energy. 

A  spiritual  energy  which  is  held  subject  to  other 
powers  in  a  lower  order  of  life,  may  be  released  from 
the  conditions  which  had  limited  it,  and  spring  un- 
bound to  freer  play,  and  serve  larger  uses  in  higher 
orders  of  being.  This  holds  true,  for  example,  with 
regard  to  the  use  of  intelligence  in  the  higher  animal 
world.  It  had  little  scope  in  the  limited  nervous 
responses  of  the  lowlier  organisms.  Mind  was  held  in 
bondage  among  the  simpler  animals.  Intelligence  is 
somewhat  released,  it  is  given  larger  range,  it  is  freed 
for  better  service,  among  the  higher  animals.  The 
radiates,  for  instance,  have  such  heads,  or  nervous 
centres,  as  they  possess,  located  near  the  middle  of  their 
organization ;  the  lower  types  of  animals  have  met  with 
but  partial  success  in  the  attempt  to  twist  themselves 
into  such  shape  that,  with  their  eyes  more  to  the  front, 
they  might  creep  or  swim  with  less  devious  motions. 
Such  glimmer  of  intelligence  as  may  be  granted  them 
is  limited  in  its  use  by  the  position  of  the  nervous 
ganglia  at  the  centre,  or  on  one  side,  of  their  structure, 
with  their  eye-spots  on  the  edge  of  their  mouth,  or  at 
the  ends  of  their  rays  or  arms.  They  can  crawl  around, 
but  they  cannot  move  far  with  straightforward  inten- 
tion. But  some  mollusks,  like  the  squid,  being  built 
upon  a  somewhat  improved  plan,  have  managed  to  get 
their  heads  to  the  front,  and   as  they  have  developed 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  221 

more  motor  organs  and  a  better  nervous  system  and 
prominent  eyes  in  their  heads,  animal  intelligence  finds 
freer  play  in  them,  than,  for  instance,  in  the  star-fish. 
The  squid  can  use  its  head  to  some  purpose  as  it  moves 
about.     It  is  a  gain   for   the   exercise    of   intelligence 
when  an  organism  can  see  and  move  straightforwards. 
In  other  words,  there  is  a  release  of  intelligence  from 
material  limitations  when  the  head  and  eyes  are  brought 
into  the  line  of  motion ;  the  vertebrates  dart  through 
the  water,  or  fly  through  the    air  on   wings  swift   as 
thought.     Every  improved   specialization   of   structure 
sets  animal  intelligence  free  from  some  limitation,  and 
renders  it  capable  of  more  co-ordinated  and  seemingly 
purposeful    activities.      Not    to   multiply   illustrations, 
it  may  be  stated  as  a  general  law  that  with  the  develop- 
ment of  life   there  is  a  larger  release  of  the  energies 
of  intelligence  from  natural   bonds  under  which  they 
were  held  subject  in  lower  organisms,  existing  under 
more  limited  material  conditions.^     The  human  will  in 
its  free   action   is   the  final,   splendid  witness   to   this 
natural  law  of  the  release  of  spiritual  force.     What  can 
it  not  do  !     The  only  ultimate  limit  to  will  is  another 
will.     The  material  world   offers  means  for  the  activity 
of  the  spirit,  but  no  final  barriers  to  its  power.    A  person 
can  be  withstood  absolutely  only  by  a  person.     Will  is 
bounded,  not  by  matter,  but  by  will  —  man's  will  by 
the  will  of  God. 


1  Compare  this  remark  of  Mr.  Morgan :  "  Mind  to  some  extent 
escapes  from  its  organic  thraldom,  and  is  free  to  develop,  still  in  accord- 
ance with  the  natural  laws  of  its  own  proper  being,  but  in  relation  to  a 
new  environment."     Habit  and  Instinct,  p.  33-4. 


222  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

Now  this  same  law  holds  good  likewise  of  this  prin- 
ciple of  restoration.     Its  spiritual  power  is  released,  its 
sphere  of  operation   is  enlarged,  its   triumph   becomes 
more    glorious    in   the    highest   dispensation    of   life. 
Lower  down,  as  has   just  been  said,  a  lost  limb  may 
sometimes  be  restored  by  nature ;  a  mutilated  form  may 
be  reconstructed;  to  a  limited  extent  the  function  of 
one  organ  may  be  substituted  for  that  of  another,  or  an 
anticipatory  service  may  be  rendered  by  one  part  for 
the  sake  of  the  growth  of  a  better  form  ;  but  no  more 
than  this  can  be  wrought  by  the  restorative  power  of 
nature   under  the  conditions  of  her  plant  and  animal 
life.      And   in    the    physiological    order,    regenerative 
energy  soon  reaches  its  necessary  limits.     But  restora- 
tive virtue   is    set   free   for   grander   service   on   life's 
highest   plane.     In  the  evolution  of  man  the  regenera- 
tive principle  becomes  a  dominant  factor.     In  the  human 
world  it  has  large,  sunny  scope ;   in  the  moral  sphere 
it  becomes  a  quickening  Spirit;  and  in  the  history  of 
man's  fall  and  redemption,  free  grace,  which  was  never 
contrary  to  nature  in  her  earlier  and  physical  regenera- 
tions, becomes  the  distinguishing  and  crowning  glory 
of  the  highest  dispensation  of  life.     So  love,  which  was 
rudimentary  and  held  in  bondage,  as  it  were,  in  the 
lower  nature,  is  made  free,  and  in  the  life  of  man  love 
becomes  the  greatest  of  all.     It  is  for  Christian  theology 
to  show   further  how  redeeming  love  works  according 
to  the  natural  laws  of  regeneration.     God  acts  always 
naturally,  in  every  order  of  being  according  to  its  kind, 
and  in  all  the  spheres  everywhere  like  Himself. 

The  Christian  theology  of  redemption  might  be  clari- 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  223 

fied  and  enriched  by  a  careful  comparative  science  of 
the  principle  of  restoration  in  all  orders  and  spheres. 
Its  workings,  its  methods,  its  limitations,  its  increase  of 
opportunit}^,  should  be  compared  in  the  history  of  the 
world  before  man,  and  in  human  society.  True  analo- 
gies from  the  lower  to  the  higher  realms  —  analogies 
which  are  real  and  not  misleading,  because  grounded 
in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  all  the  worlds  —  would 
thus  be  rendered  available  in  Christian  teaching  and 
preaching.  It  would  be  profitable,  for  example,  to 
institute  a  comparative  study  of  the  method  of  salvation 
in  both  the  lower  and  the  higher  orders  of  nature  in 
such  particulars  as  these  :  —  first,  in  the  direct  working 
of  the  forces  of  vital  repair  and  renewal ;  and,  secondly, 
in  the  special  method  of  substitution.  For  substitution, 
as  we  have  just  observed  —  substitution  which  even  on 
nature's  lower  plane  involves  rudimentary  sacrifice  — 
is  one  of  the  great  natural  principles  of  regenerative 
life.  Vicariousness,  as  such  comparative  study  may 
teach  our  theology  afresh,  is  a  principle  laid  in  the  very 
foundations  of  the  world.  Vicariousness  is  not  con- 
trary to  nature's  heart.  There  is  an  eternal  atonement. 
We  have  much  still  to  learn  concerning  the  deeper 
naturalness  of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ.  But  we 
glance  in  this  direction  only  for  a  moment,  that  we  may 
indicate  a  way  of  further  rejuvenescence  of  Christian 
theology,  which  the  new  natural  theology  opens  for 
faith. 

One  other  striking  aspect  of  the  principle  of  restora- 
tion, as  we  see  it  developing  alike  in  nature  and  through 
human  history,  should  not  be  passed  by  without  com- 


22J:  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO   FAITH 

ment,  for  it  offers  a  further  and  impressive  sign  of  the 
moral  character  of  evolution  as  a  whole.  It  is  a  feature 
of  it  which  may  be  designated  as  the  law  of  diminish- 
ing sacrifice  and  of  increasing  service. 

It  is  a  signal  fact  that  as  evolution  proceeds  and  the 
hio-her  spiritual  forces  of  life  are  released,  the  necessity 
for   sacrifice   diminishes,  while  at  the    same  time    the 
field  for  service  is  enlarged.     We  have  already  observed 
the  rudimentary  forms  of  mutual  service  which  are  to  be 
seen  in  primitive  colonies  of  cells,  in  a  division  of  labor 
between  associated  cells,  and  later  in  vital  co-operation 
between  the  fully  developed  oi-gans  ;  still  further  we 
may  note  those   curious   instances    in   Avhich    different 
animals  help  each  other  live,  which  are  known  in  the 
books    as    examples    of    Symbiosis,    or   living  together. 
An  early  instance  of  this  method  of  mutually  dependent 
life  —  to  mention  one  for  all  —  is  the  interesting  case  of 
an  ordinary  Radiolarian,  the  life  of  which  is  maintained 
by  a  partnership  which  was  at  first  a  complete  puzzle 
to  the  biologists.     It  is  now  known  that  certain  little 
yellow  cells,  which  are  found  embedded  in  a  Radiolarian, 
are  distinct  animals,  which  live  upon  the    carbon  and 
nitrogenous    waste   of   their   host,   and  which   in   turn 
repay  its  hospitality  by  decomposing  its  carbon  dioxide, 
and  giving  it  back  free  oxygen  for  its  breath  of  life,  and 
also   through  their  own  bodies  supplying  it  with  two 
important  elements  for  its  protoplasm.     Service,  mutual 
service,  which  in  Symbiosis  is  seen  to  obtain  as  a  law 
at  the  very  root  of  life,  becomes   a  more  marked  and 
prevalent  principle  all  the  way  up.     But  on  the  other 
hand  is  not  sacrifice,   involving  a   seemingly   immense 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  225 

waste  of  life,  one  of  nature's  obvious  first  principles? 
Life  preys  upon  other  life.  Life  is  sacrificed  to  life. 
Service  for  a  long  while  seems  to  be  but  little,  and  sac- 
rifice everywhere  and  everything  in  nature.  Nature  is 
"red  in  tooth  and  claw."  But  look  ajjain  and  agrain. 
Make  cross-sections  through  living  nature  at  different 
periods,  after  long  intervals,  and  what  do  Ave  see? 
What  but  a  diminishing  use  of  sacrifice,  and  an  increas- 
ing use  of  service.  This  holds  true  in  the  higher  plant 
and  animal  world.  Amid  destructive  competition  help- 
ful co-operation  begins  to  count  more.^  We  find,  not 
every  creature  warring  against  every  other  creature, 
but  flocks  and  herds,  and  various  animal  associations 
for  mutual  protection  and  help.  As  nature's  ideas  be- 
come evolved,  it  is  found  to  cost  less  waste  of  life  to 
preserve  life.  The  race  though  still  to  the  swift,  and 
the  battle  to  the  strong,  becomes  less  deadly.  The  re- 
production of  the  species  grows  less  sacrificial.  Parents 
survive  as  trainers  and  helpers.  Motherhood  costs  less 
sacrifice,  and  means  more  service.  Travail  and  pain  are 
forgotten  for  joy  that  a  man-child  is  born  into  the  world. 
Human  motherhood  shows  that  a  serene  height  has 
been  reached  where  one  life  does  not  need  to  be  given 
up  wholly  for  another  life,  but  where  the  mother's  life 
may  be  happily  and  helpfully  prolonged  for  the  other 
life  of  the  child.  In  the  human  home  sacrifice  has 
become  the  vanishing  element,  and  mutual  service  the 
dominant  joy.     Or,  sacrifice,  if  it  still  must  needs  be,  is 

1  This  law  compreliends  the  truth  of  the  apparently  altruistic  side  of 
evolution,  which  Mr.  Drummond  has  poetically  depicted  in  his  Ascent  of 
Alan. 


226  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

there  transmuted  into  service  and  glorified.  More  and 
more  in  the  history  of  the  world,  as  the  higher  energies 
of  spirit  are  set  free  and  prevail,  nature's  first  hard 
necessity  of  sacrifice  grows  less,  and  service  in  its  joy 
prevails.  Cross-sections  of  human  history,  if  made 
at  different  levels  or  ages,  and  compared  with  one 
another,  would  demonstrate  this  gracious  character  of 
the  higher  social  evolution.  Even  war  itself,  as  it  is 
rendered  more  costly  to  a  nation's  treasury,  and  more 
deadly  in  its  implements,  becomes  less  fatal  in  its 
battles ;  wars  cost  less  life  as  civilization  grows.  The 
casualties  were  vastly  greater  in  the  ancient  wars  of 
the  Assyrians,  the  Medes,  and  the  Persians,  than  in 
modern  battles.  They  were  larger  in  medieval  com- 
bats than  in  later  campaigns.  They  were  greater  pro- 
portionally even  in  our  civil  war  than  in  more  recent 
battles.  In  our  time,  moreover,  the  great  world  calls 
for  only  occasional  heroic  sacrifice,  but  it  offers  a  wide 
field  for  daily  service.  Nature's  first  law  is  one  of  sac- 
rifice ;  her  last  law  of  life  is  one  of  service.  The  sacri- 
fice of  the  Son  of  man,  the  supreme  sacrifice  of  history, 
was  atonement  offered  once  for  all:  an  apostle  could 
find  it  needful  only  to  fill  up  that  which  is  lacking  of 
the  afflictions  of  Christ.  And  that  is  a  diminishing 
need  as  the  Spirit  of  Christ  prevails.  The  summons  for 
the  martyrs  ceases ;  the  opportunity  for  a  life  poured 
out  in  some  single  and  splendid  act  of  sacrifice  becomes 
rare;  but  faithful  lives  of  mutual  service  find  their 
happy  day  in  all  Christian  communities.  Sacrifice,  in 
short,  may  pass  away ;  but  love  abides  forever. 

Still  we  must  ask,  Sliall  there  remain  for  life  in  the 


RESTORATION  IN  EVOLUTION  227 

highest  no  more  pain  or  death?  Shall  sacrifice  pass 
entirely  away,  and  the  heavenly  service  only  remain? 
Shall  death  itself  at  last  he  dispensed  with  as  no  longer 
needful  for  life  and  its  perfect  evolution?  Before  we 
are  quite  ready  to  give  to  this  supreme  question  of  our 
human  destiny  the  fullest  answer  which  may  he  derived 
from  the  study  of  evolution,  we  must  turn  once  more  to 
the  facts,  and  inquire  concerning  another  great  construc- 
tive principle  of  nature.  Then  we  may  seek  to  combine 
all  these  lines  of  inquiry  together  in  our  rational  and 
spiritual  interpretation  of  the  universe,  amid  the  lights 
and  shadows  of  which  we  now  walk,  and  wonder,  and 
believe  and  wait. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  PEINCIPLE  OP    COMPLETION 

An  eminent  German  botanist,  Nageli,  in  the  intro- 
duction to  a  book  in  which  he  summed  up  his  investi- 
gations into  the  life  of  the  phxnts,  wrote  of  a  principle 
of  perfection  which  he  had  discovered  in  his  studies  of 
nature.  Something  running  through  the  development 
of  the  plants  and  the  flowers  had  impressed  him  with  its 
all-pervasive  and  dominant  presence ;  and  he  character- 
ized it  by  this  significant  phrase,  a  principle  of  perfec- 
tion. ^  After  the  habit  of  strict  scientists  he  was  careful 
to  disclaim  any  metaphysical  intentions  in  the  use  of  a 
phrase  so  idealistic  as  that;  he  explained  that  he  meant 
to  characterize  by  means  of  it  that  progressive  tendency 
which  seems  to  be  of  the  essence  and  movement  of  the 
whole  living  process  of  nature.  Without  adopting  or 
discussing  Nageli's  biological  views,  we  may  take  his 
phrase  as  a  happy  designation  of  an  impression  which 
the  all-around  naturalist  often  receives  from  his  studies. 
Nageli  is  not  the  only  biologist  who  has  dropped  into 
the  use  of  such  significant  expressions.  The  phrases,  a 
tendency  towards  perfection,  a  progressive  tendency, 
progressive  development,  and  other  words  implying 
movement  towards  some  end  to  be  realized,  frequently 

^  Mechanisch'physiologlsche  Theorle  der  Ahstammungslehre,  s.  12. 

226 


THE  PPdNCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  229 

creep  almost  unawares  into  strictly  scientific  essays, 
even  where  the  best  intentions  exist  of  keeping  out  any 
confusing  metaphysical  ideas. ^ 

The  impression  of  some  formative  and  perfecting 
principle  in  nature  is  a  suggestion  which  naturalists, 
who  would  see  facts  in  their  larger  outlying  relations, 
will  not  wish  lightly  to  brush  aside.  It  is  nature's 
response  to  their  own  thought.  It  is  one  of  those  im- 
pressions which  are  received  by  the  mind  that  looks  into 
nature  from  the  mind  which  is  revealed  through  nature. 
Do  you  say,  No,  it  may  be  only  our  mind  seeing  its  own 
image  in  nature's  glass?  But  how  do  you  know  that? 
How  do  you  know  that  nature  is  a  mirror,  and  not  a 
revelation  ?  Evolution  is  thoroughly  real,  and  leads  us 
to  believe  in  the  realities  of  things.  We  have  no 
knowledge  to  warrant  us  in  saying  that  at  the  back  of 
nature's  glass  is  only  so  much  foil,  and  that  nature  is 
but  a  deceptive  mirror  of  our  human  face ;  it  is  as  scien- 
tific, it  is  truer  rather  to  say.  Any  light  we  may  see  in 
nature  is  light  shining  through  it.  Nature  is  not  a 
mirror  of  our  consciousness,  but  a  glass  through  which 

^  For  instance,  one  of  our  American  biologists,  in  describing  certain 
processes  of  regeneration,  remarked  that  "  what  we  call  correlation  of  the 
parts  seems  here  to  belong  rather  to  the  category  of  phenomena  that  we 
call  intelligent  than  to  physical  or  chemical  processes  as  known  in  the  physi- 
cal sciences.  The  action  seems,  however,  to  be  intelligent  only  so  far  as 
concerns  the  internal  relations  of  the  parts,  etc."  But  the  next  year  he 
offers  an  apology  for  his  having  fallen  into  a  metaphysical  pitfall,  and 
says  that  "  it  is  true  that  at  present  we  cannot  explain  them  (these  reac- 
tions) as  the  result  of  known  chemical  or  physical  properties  of  matter, 
but  I  do  not  think  that  therefore  I  was  justified  in  calling  them  intelli- 
gent processes,  even  in  the  broadest  use  of  the  word,  etc.,"  Morgan,  T.  H., 
Wood's  Holl,  Biol.  Lectures,  1899,  p.  204  ;  and  so  he  leaves  his  previous 
words  without  much  intelligible  meaning. 


230  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

we  look  out,  and  the  eternal  reality  shines  in.  The 
background  of  the  universe  is  not  metallic  foil,  but  spir- 
itual reality. 

The  modern  botanist,  Nageli,  was  not  the  first  to  dis- 
cover a  certain  principle  of  perfection  in  nature.  Long 
ago  that  great  naturalist,  as  well  as  philosopher,  Aris- 
totle, spoke  of  a  perfecting  principle  in  nature,  record- 
ing in  the  phrase  the  impression  which  nature  itself  had 
made  upon  his  keen  observant  mind.  It  is  in  some 
sense  a  return  to  Aristotle,  when  modern  biology  puts  at 
the  focus  of  our  philosophy  of  life  the  question,  How 
has  nature  taken  form  ?  Plastic  material,  not  inert  sub- 
stance, has  been  worked  up,  and  received  shape  and 
order  and  comeliness  in  evolution :  what  have  been  the 
formative  forces  or  processes  through  which  it  has  taken 
shape  and  been  so  far  perfected  ? 

In  pursuing  further  this  discussion,  it  is  preferable  to 
substitute  for  Nageli's  phrase,  the  principle  of  perfection, 
this  expression,  the  principle  of  completion;  partly  be- 
cause the  latter  phrase  avoids  at  the  outset  any  moral 
implications,  and  also  because  it  will  be  found  to  describe 
quite  accurately  the  facts  and  tendencies  which  come 
under  observation. 

At  this  point  we  must  return  to  our  previous  reason- 
ings concerning  the  fact  and  character  of  direction  in  the 
nature-process ;  but  these  will  appear  to  us  in  this  fur- 
ther consideration  of  them  under  a  new  aspect.  Taken 
in  connection  with  what  has  also  been  observed  concern- 
ing the  process  of  individualization,  the  whole  matter 
will  begin  now  to  open  towards  the  prospect  of  some 
completion  for  our  all  too  broken  human  life. 


THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  281 

It  is  not  necessary  to  repeat,  but  we  should  now  keep 
in  mind,  the  successive  facts  and  interpretations  which 
have  ah-eady  occupied  our  attention;  for  they  constitute 
the  broad  basis  for  further  argument.  We  shall  seek  to 
bring  out  their  bearing  in  particular  upon  the  possible 
completion  of  life. 

The  evidence  of  a  persistent  tendency  towards  comple- 
tion in  nature  lies  broadly  and  largely  before  us  in  the 
fact  of  the  progressive  adaptation  of  life.  So  eminent  a 
biological  authority  as  Oscar  Hertwig  holds  it  to  be 
scientifically  true  to  apply  this  expression,  the  principle 
of  progression,  to  tlie  development  of  nature  as  a 
whole.  ''The  most  remarkable  example,"  he  says,  "of 
a  progressive  process  of  development  is  to  be  found  in 
every  ontogeny  (the  individual  development)  from  the 
egg.  For  every  stage  of  it  is  the  preparation  for  the 
following,  and  the  process  goes  on  towards  its  realization 
unceasingly,  so  far  as  the  outward  conditions  also  .  .  . 
exist.  Even  slight  disturbances  from  without  cannot 
stay  the  process  in  its  progression,  as  there  are  various 
means  of  overcoming  and  equalizing  them,  so  that  the 
course  of  development  is  constantly  brought  back  to  the 
goal  fore-designated  by  its  nature,  and  it  presses  towards 
its  ordered  goal."  So  Hertwig  would  regard,  likewise, 
the  natural  historical  method  of  evolution  in  general  as 
in  a  similar  manner  a  constant  and  orderly  progression, 
not  as  a  play  of  accidents,  but  as  possessing  the  same 
inner  necessity  as  the  ontogenesis  of  the  egg.^     Simi- 

1  Die  ZelJe  nnd  die  Gewebe,  p.  278.  Similarly,  another  eminent  Ger- 
man investigator,  Dricsch,  has  been  led  hy  his  studies  of  onto2;enetic  and 
reparative   processes   to   modify  his   earlier"  machine  theory"   of  vital 


232  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

larly  an  American  authority,  Professor  Wilson,  in 
speaking  of  different  forms  of  cleavage  which  are  to  be 
observed  in  the  development  of  the  egg,  says:  "We 
cannot  comprehend  the  forms  of  cleavage  without  refer- 
ence to  the  end-result. "  1  That  remark  holds  true  all 
through  nature.  We  cannot  comprehend  what  is  to  be 
seen  at  any  cross-section  of  natural  processes  without 
reference  to  the  end-result.  At  no  period  does  life 
appear  like  a  little  boat  adrift  aimlessly  on  the  vast 
ocean  of  existence.  It  is  never  a  derelict.  However 
buffeted  and  tossed  about,  it  is  always  moving  and  strug- 
gling on  towards  an  "end-result." 

This  teleological  character  of  the  nature  process  as  a 
^l^ole  —  its  habitual  way,  that  is,  of  working  towards 
ends  — -  impresses  itself  upon  a  thouglitful  observation  in 
many  ways.  We  realize  it  when  we  reflect  how  often 
the  same  material  has  been  worked  over  by  nature,  and 
worked  up  into  better  forms.  For  the  same  atomic 
matter  on  this  earth  has  been  worked  over  and  over 
with  ceaseless  thrift,  and  the  utmost  has  been  made  of 
it,  in  the  history  of  plant  and  animal  life.  Adaptation 
after  adaptation  is  introduced,  form  after  form  is 
selected,  naturally  happy  hits,  if  you  please,  are  seized 
upon  and   used  for  still  further  advantage,  all  in  the 

action.  He  now  recognizes  a  special  law  of  vital  procedure  ("  eigenthiim- 
liche  Geschehensgesetzlichkeit "),  which  is  not  subordinated  to,  but 
co-ordinated  with,  the  causal  forms  of  connection  in  the  inorganic  world. 
Arch.f.  Entw-Mech.,  Bd.  viii.  s.  35.  0.  Hertwig  in  a  recent  address,  Die 
Entwiddung  der  Biologic  im  19.  Jahrhundert,  reasserts  with  even  more 
distinctness  the  views  to  which  we  have  referred.  Per  contra,  see 
O.  Biitschli,  Mechanismus  und  Vitalismus  (1901).  The  notes  contain 
references  to  recent  utterances  on  this  question  by  German  authorities. 
1  The  Cell,  p.  377. 


THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  233 

ceaseless  effort  apparently  to  make  the  most  and  the 
best  of  the  matter  of  life.  The  same  particles  may  have 
been  used  in  the  meshes  of  a  vegetable  mould,  in  the 
single  vaguely  sensitive  cell  of  a  protozoan,  in  the  more 
organized  body  of  a  moUusk,  in  the  warm  blood  of  a 
bird  of  the  air,  in  the  brain  of  a  statesman,  in  the  heart 
of  a  saint.  Nature  will  do  her  utmost  with  the  material 
given  to  her  hand.  And  nature's  utmost  is  nature's 
best.  Never  weary  in  doing  good,  fainting  not  along 
life's  long  way,  pressing  on  towards  the  goal,  nature 
strives  to  apprehend  that  for  which  also  she  is  appre- 
hended. Nature,  give  her  time,  will  fulfil  her  whole 
law  of   perfection. 

This  same  impressive  conduct  of  nature,  as  of  an 
intelligent  working  toward  completion,  appears  not 
only  in  the  large,  but  also  in  particular  instances  of  her 
progressive  adaptations,  as  when  we  survey  the  round- 
ing out  of  individual  life-histories  into  completed  circles; 
—  if  we  consider,  for  example,  her  procedure  in  the 
course  of  the  lives  of  certain  animals  which  pass 
through  successive  and  seemingly  disconnected  stages, 
but  which  complete  a  perfect  circle  in  their  develop- 
ment. We  may  select  as  an  example  Mr.  Morgan's 
account  of  the  interesting  and  singular  career  of  the 
Yucca  moth.  This  silvery  insect  emerges  from  its 
chrysalis -case  "just  when  the  large  yellowish-white 
bell-shaped  flowers  of  the  Yucca  open,  each  for  a  single 
night."  The  female  moth  gathers  the  golden  pollen 
from  the  anthers  of  one  of  these  flowers,  and  kneads  it 
into  a  little  pellet.  Laden  with  it  and  holding  it,  shall 
we  say,  carefully,  she  flies  off  and  seeks  another  flower. 


234  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

Finding  it,  "she  pierces  with  the  sharp  lancets  of  her 
ovipositor  the  tissue  of  the  pistil,  lays  her  eggs  among 
the  ovules,  and  then,  darting  to  the  top  of  the  stigma, 
stuffs  the  fertilizing  pellet  of  pollen  into  its  funnel- 
shaped  opening."  The  visits  of  the  moth  are  necessary 
to  the  flower;  else  it  would  remain  unfertilized.  And 
the  fertilization  of  the  ovules  of  the  flower  is  necessary 
also  to  the  larvse  of  the  moth ;  for  they  feed  exclusively 
on  the  developing  ovules.  "  Each  grub  consumes  some 
twenty  ovules,  and  there  may  be  three  or  four  such 
grubs,"  while  the  ovary  may  contain  "some  two  hundred 
ovules.  "1  So  they  both  get  along  together  very  welL 
The  plant  makes  a  partial  sacrifice  of  its  seed  to  the 
moth,  and  the  moth  brings  the  means  of  fertilization  to 
the  Yucca  flower.  The  moth  performs  all  this  wonderful 
adaptation  but  once  in  her  life ;  her  offspring  she  never 
sees  and  cannot  know.  She  has  no  means  of  understand- 
ing the  effect  of  what  she  does  either  upon  the  plant  or 
for  her  eggs.  Yet  to  this  good  purpose  she  toils,  and  to 
this  end  nature  blesses  her  work.  Here  certainly  is  a 
wonderful  sequence  of  activities  and  adaptations,  and 
through  this  whole  series  nature  works  for  definite 
end-results.  By  this  combination  of  elements  of  plant 
life  and  activities  of  animal  life,  nature  secures  the 
benefit  of  both.  There  is  to  be  seen  here  a  co-ordination 
of  many  factors  for  results ;  and  these  results  are  them- 
selves also  part  of  the  general  movement  and  process  of 
life's  perfecting.  In  this  instance  —  and  many  similar 
ones  can  be  given  —  one  might  miss  entirely  the  connec- 
tion, and  fail  to  trace  the  self-completing  life-history, 

1  See  Lloyd  Morgau,  Habit  and  Instinct,  p.  14. 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  235 

had  not  the  whole  series  of  nature  been  observed.  It  is 
an  instance  to  show  how  nature  fulfils  herself  in  many 
ways.  With  a  whole  completed  life-history  before  us 
we  can  perceive  a  truth  of  large  suggestive  import,  — 
how  things  which  seem  strange  and  unaccountable  when 
seen  separately  and  regarded  only  in  relation  to  a  limited 
period  of  the  life-history,  are  explicable  and  fall  into  a 
good  whole,  when  seen  in  their  relations  to  other  parts 
and  as  moments  of  one  well-ordered  process.  Each  act 
and  instinct  of  the  Yucca  moth,  as  well  as  each  arrange- 
ment of  the  Yucca  flower  likewise,  is  sign  of  that  all- 
pervasive  tendency  towards  completion,  in  virtue  of 
which  we  may  be  assured  nature  everywhere  will  finish 
what  it  has  begun.  You  do  not  understand  what 
mother-nature  may  be  doing  at  any  moment?  Watch 
her  long  enough,  and  you  shall  know. 

This  general  fact  of  progressive  development  dis- 
closes, when  we  look  at  it  more  carefully,  two  distinct 
features ;  it  is  a  progressive  development  both  of  form 
and  function.  Life  takes  on  better  form,  and  it  thereby 
fulfils  its  functions  better.  Or,  in  a  word,  life  shapes 
itself  better  for  better  work.  These  two,  form  and 
function,  go  together  in  nature,  and  each  seems  to  help 
on  the  growth  of  the  other. 

The  swimming  bladder,  for  instance,  of  a  fish  develops 
into  a  lung;  and  the  lung,  when  it  is  formed,  discharges 
better  the  function  of  breathing  the  air.  It  is  an  old 
biological  question  which  is  first,  —  whether  an  organ  is 
first  formed  for  use,  or  whether  the  use  develops  the 
organ.  Sometimes  forms  seem  to  arise  in  anticipation 
of  some  future  use.     But  certainly  through  the  improve- 


236  THBOUGH   SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

ment  of  structure,  and  the  demand  upon  an  organism 
for  better  adaptation,  life  goes  on  towards  perfection. 
A  remark  of  Mr.  Ward's  aptly  hits  this  characteristic  of 
evolution :  "  It  has  sought  not  only  to  live,  but  to  live 
well." 

The  fact  of  this  mutually  dependent  development  of 
progressive  form  and  better  adaptation  for  organic  func- 
tions, appears  even  from  a  cursory  view  of  evolution. 
Indeed  something  of  this  twofold  method  of  progress 
may  have  characterized  inorganic  nature.  Astronomical 
physics  has  marked  successive  steps  in  the  formation  of 
the  stars.  And  in  the  later  evolution  of  the  skies  two 
distinct  but  related  modes  of  formation  have  been  dis- 
tinguished. One  is  the  development  of  a  ring  of  more 
or  less  nebulous  matter ;  the  other  is  a  division  of  stellar 
matter  into  comparatively  equal  bodies.^  But  as  stellar 
form  has  thus  been  gained,  the  stars  have  become  more 
fit  for  use.  The  hottest,  less  developed  stars  cannot 
shelter  any  life  such  as  exists  on  the  earth.  The  more 
developed  worlds  may  become  fit  for  the  abode  of  life. 
We  know  one  world  at  least  which  has  been  so  formed 
and  developed  that  upon  its  surface,  and  for  a  few  thou- 
sand feet  above  its  valleys,  it  can  shelter  and  nourish 
something  of  vital  worth,  and  draw  to  itself  influences 
from  all  the  stars  in  its  ministering  to  life.  The  forms 
of  the  stellar  universe  have  become  fitted  at  this  earth- 
point  at  least  to  discharge  this  function  of  sustaining 
animated  existence.  We  do  not  know  for  what  func- 
tions for  other  intelligencies  the  heavens  may  have  been 
developed  at  other  shining  points :  we  do  know  how  ages 

1  See  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Dec,  1897,  vol.  52,  pp.  175-176. 


THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  237 

of  inorganic  evolution  have  fitted  this  earth  to  be  as  the 
garden  of  life.  Now  observe  particularly  that  this  stellar 
formation,  and  this  evolution  of  a  world  fitted  for  vital 
uses,  has  been  progressive  and  adaptive.  It  has  not  been 
a  succession  of  dissolving  forms ;  it  has  been  one  move- 
ment on  through  a  series  of  connected  forms.  The 
great  heavens  have  not  been  as  a  theatre  for  the  display 
of  changing  pictures,  but  for  the  evolution  of  a  drama. 
The  history  of  the  inorganic  kingdom  has  not  been  like 
a  succession  of  waves,  now  rising,  now  falling,  always 
restless,  never  advancing;  it  is  rather  like  an  increasing 
number  of  steps,  when  each  point  gained  becomes  the 
point  of  departure  for  another  step  in  the  same  direction. 
However  mechanically  wrought  and  mathematically 
intelligible  this  astronomic  evolution  may  prove  to  be, 
in  its  fundamental  and  constant  character  it  has  one 
meaning  and  worth,  —  it  is  a  formation  for  use ;  it  is  a 
movement  which  ends  in  service  for  life.  As  such  it  is 
an  evolution  which  gains  as  its  issue  something  of 
higher  value  than  itself.  In  its  use  for  life  it  reaches 
an  end,  and  an  end  wdiich  is  worth  all  the  astronomic 
ages  of  star-formation. 

This  same  impressive  character,  which  the  heavens 
declare  to  the  modern  astronomer,  of  progressive  move- 
ment and  adaptation  for  further  use  —  of  form  fitted  for 
service  —  may  likewise  be  traced  in  the  geological  his- 
tory of  the  world  which  has  been  made  for  us.  A  geol- 
ogist, Professor  Shaler,  may  best  interpret  for  us  this 
aspect  of  the  history  of  the  earth :  "  We  should  also  see 
that  the  greatest  work  of  the  earth,  from  ancient  ages, 
has  been  to  afford  the  place  on  which,  as  on  a  theatre, 


238  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

this  life  has  played  its  part.  We  find  the  most  wonder- 
ful proof  of  the  earth's  perfection  in  the  fact  that  for  a 
time,  so  long  that  our  imaginations  are  too  weak  to 
consider  it,  it  has  been  so  well  ordered  that  no  convul- 
sions have  prevented  the  animals  and  plants  from  stead- 
ily going  forward  in  their  development.  Ten  miles 
beneath  the  surface,  there  is  a  heat  so  great  that  no  life 
could  bear  it ;  ten  miles  above,  a  cold  so  intense  that,  if 
it  should  come  to  the  earth,  nearly  all  created  things 
would  immediately  die.  Yet  for  ages  the  balance  has 
been  so  preserved,  and  the  temperature  of  the  earth  has 
remained  so  near  what  it  is  at  present,  that  these  sensi- 
tive living  creatures  have  not  been  killed,  but  have 
prospered  from  age  to  age."^ 

The  persistent  working  of  evolution  towards  comple- 
tion appears  further  when  we  take  a  general  bird's  eye 
view,  as  it  were,  of  the  course  of  development  by  means 
of  which  organic  form  has  been  fitted  for  the  largest 
reception  and  use  of  intelligence.  On  the  surface  of  it, 
from  a  general  glance  over  the  course  of  it,  it  appears 
that  from  the  outset  nature's  problem  has  been  how  to 
reach  a  form  of  life  best  fitted  for  the  habitation  and 
service  of  mind.  Her  great  structural  lines  j^oint  in 
that  direction.  Her  repeated  and  renewed  attempts  all 
lie  in  that  direction.  The  successive  types  of  the 
animal  kingdom  show  increasing  adaptation  to  brains 
and  their  function.  A  mollusk  is  formed  but  soon  left 
behind,  for  there  is  no  progress  further  towards  brains 
to  be  made  by  protecting  an  organism  with  a  ponderous 
shell.     A  worm  is  tried  again,  and  muscles  are  laid  on 

1  First  Book  in  Geology,  p.  147. 


THE   PRTNCTPLE   OF   COMPLETION  239 

transversely  and  longitudinally.  Some  gain  in  the  way 
towards  brains  is  made  next  among  the  annelids  and 
articulates,  when  more  power  of  locomotion  and  some 
beginning  of  sense-organs  are  won;  when  life  rises  a 
grade  higher  than  the  worm  in  articulates  which  acquire 
a  head  and  legs.  In  the  insects  that  way  is  carried  as 
far  as  their  size  permits.  Nature  takes  up  next  the  ner- 
vous system,  develops  backbone,  and  gains  larger  space 
in  the  animal  for  brains.^  Intelligence  becomes  eventu- 
ally the  leading  line  of  evolution.  And  it  is  a  question 
which  the  zoologists  have  fairly  opened  up,  but  which 
they  have  not  as  yet  thoroughly  investigated,  how  far 
animal  intelligence,  after  a  certain  amount  of  it  was 
gained,  entered  itself  as  a  direct  factor  into  evolution, 
by  its  presence  and  influence  shaping  its  course  and 
uplifting  it  to  higher  aim.  Mind  once  gained  in  evolu- 
tion becomes  henceforth  a  factor  of  evolution.  It  may 
even  seize  upon  and  direct  natural  selection,  exercising 
as  it  were  from  within  nature  an  artificial  selection  as 
it  brings  itself  more  and  more  to  dominance.  But  pass- 
ing this,  the  immediate  point  is  that  through  successive 
types,  and  on  progressive  lines,  nature  has  worked  out 
and  solved  the  problem  of  building  a  structure  which 
is  in  the  highest  degree  fitted  for  intelligence.  ''  The 
naturalist,"  as  one  of  them  remarks,  "cannot  believe 
that  man  was  a  mere  accident;  he  is  rather  the  beinn- 
to  which    the  world   in   all   its    efforts  was  constantly 

1  Accordiug  to  Professor  Brooks  fossils  show  that  amoof^  terrestrial 
animals,  since  the  Middle  Tertiary,  the  size  of  their  brains  has  increased 
over  one  hundred  per  cent;  the  brain  of  the  modern  mammal  is  more  than 
twice  as  large,  compared  with  its  body,  as  the  brain  of  its  ancestors  in 
that  geological  period.     See  Foundations  of  Zoology,  p.  217. 


240  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

tending."  1  This  fact  that  there  has  been  a  tendency 
towards  comx^letion  in  nature  appears  with  irresistible 
force  when  we  follow  up  through  the  long  ages  what 
has  been  called  the  "organic  approach  to  man."  It  is 
a  long  chain  of  organic  events,  generations  linked  to 
generations,  yet  it  has  not  been  broken,  and  not  a  link 
needed  for  its  completion  has  been  missing.  Zoologists 
have  not  indeed  found  every  missing  link,  but  they 
have  laid  hands  on  links  enough  to  be  sure  of  the 
chain.  One  hardly  knows  how  to  put  into  words  the 
impression  of  some  determinate  connection  and  of  some 
ceaseless  movement  towards  an  end-result,  which  is 
made  by  the  attempt  to  reproduce  with  scientific  imagi- 
nation this  swift  yet  ceaseless  procession  of  organic 
forms,  this  innumerable  succession  of  generations,  this 
steady  march  and  approach,  which  will  not  be  diverted, 
of  the  powers  of  life  on  and  on,  and  up  and  still  higher, 
until  the  kingdom  is  come,  and  Man  reigns,  and  life 
has  become  love  and  worship.  It  is  sober  truth  and 
science  which  Browning  utters  in  ParaceUus,  — 

"  All  tended  to  mankind, 
And,  man  produced,  all  has  its  end  thus  far : 
But  in  completed  man  begins  anew 
A  tendency  to  God.     Prognostics  told 
Man's  near  approach ;  so  in  man's  self  arise 
August  anticipations,  symbols,  types, 
Of  a  dim  splendor  ever  on  before 
In  that  eternal  circle  run  by  life." 

Our  argument  may  be  interrupted  here  by  the  ques- 
tion whether  there  are  not  some  evolutionary  theories 

1  Shaler,  ibid.,  p.  188.     Prof.  J.  M.  Tyler  has   fully  developed  this 
argument  iu  his  book  ou  The   Whence  and  the   Whither  of  Man. 


THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  241 

which  may  account  for  this  apparent  progress  towards 
an  intelligent  end  and  final  coronation  of  mind,  with- 
out recourse  to  an  idea  of  a  goal,  or  anything  resem- 
bling a  thoughtful  moral  purpose  in  nature  ?  Certainly 
there  are  scientific  theories  which  are  competent  to 
explain,  with  much  probability,  although  still  partially, 
the  methods  of  this  whole  progressive  course  of  nature. 
Let  us  turn,  then,  once  more  to  the  theories,  and  see 
how  far  they  can  be  made  to  go.^  They  may  account 
for  the  manner  in  which  the  road  has  been  made ;  but 
not  for  the  movement  of  nature  up  the  way  of  life. 
They  present  for  our  understanding  good  summaries 
of  nature's  tactics;  they  do  not  comprehend  the  grand 
strategy  of  the  creation  in  the  order  of  the  heavens  and 
the  victories  of  life.  True  science,  in  its  present  more 
reverent  mood,  will  have  little  patience  with  the  flippant 
ease  with  which  j)hrases  like  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
are  popularly  used,  as  though  by  words  the  worlds 
were  made. 

The  chief  means  of  progressive  evolution  may  still 
be  described  in  general  by  Darwin's  formula  of  natural 
selection.  It  is  by  no  means  certain,  however,  that 
Darwin's  formula  for  the  creation  is  comprehensive. 
Nature  may  have  other  arrows  in  her  quiver,  and  more 
than  one  way  of  hitting  her  mark.  We  know  as  matter 
of  fact  that  one  way  of  her  success  in  promoting  life  is 
to  eliminate  the  unfit.  Nature  is  repeatedly  subjecting 
life  to  severe  examinations,  and  the  creatures  who 
miserably  fail  of  the  test  are  left  to  perish.  To  some 
extent  this  method  of  evolution  tlirough  natural  selec- 

1  See  p.  80. 
16 


242  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

tion  may  be  said  to  have  been  experimentally  verified. 
For  example,  on  February  1,  1898,  nature  held  an 
examination  of  blackbirds  in  the  city  of  Providence, 
Rhode  Island.  The  test  was  a  severe  snowstorm.  One 
hundred  and  thirty-six  birds,  that  had  apparently 
succumbed  to  the  icy  blast,  were  brought  into  the  labo- 
ratory of  Brown  University,  and  the  attempt  was  made 
to  revive  them.  Sixty-four  of  these  birds  perished; 
seventy-two  revived.  It  was  found  by  careful  measure- 
ments that  there  was  a  reason  in  the  structure  of  the  birds 
for  this  survival  difference.  Natural  selection,  we  are 
told,  was  most  destructive  of  those  birds  which  had  de- 
parted most  from  the  ideal  type;  those  survived  that 
came  nearest  the  normal  type.  The  best  fitted  birds 
passed  the  examination  of  the  snowstorm ;  those  not  so 
well  prepared  failed  and  perished.  By  such  repeated 
examinations,  moreover,  the  standard  of  excellence  is 
kept  up.  Natural  selection  acts  thus  as  a  perfecting 
principle  of  life.^ 

AVlien  all  this  has  been  granted,  many  questions 
remain.  Are  there  other  formative  forces  ?  And  par- 
ticularly what  are  the  causes  of  useful  variations  ?  The 
role  of  variation,  as  it  shall  be  restudied  and  be  better 
understood,  may  disclose  to  us  much  more  than  we 
have  known  of  the  ultimate  character  of  natural  evolu- 
tion. We  must  leave  the  biologists  to  work  out  further 
this  complex  problem  of  the  formative  methods  of  life. 
Some  investigators  find  hints  and  suggestions  of  what 
they  call  Anti-Darwinian  factors  in  evolution.  It  is  gen- 
erally agreed  that  the  problem  is  a  vastly  complex  one. 

1   Wood's  Holly  Biol.  Lectures,  1898,  p.  217. 


THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  243 

One  of  the  chief  questions  which  biologists  since  Dar- 
win have  been  trying  to  solve,  relates,  as  just  sug- 
gested, to  the  causes  of  variation.  Do  variations  occur 
in  all  possible  directions,  while  natural  selection  prunes 
off  the  poorer  ones  and  lets  only  the  fittest  grow  ?  Or 
do  some  variations  regularly  recur  in  definite  directions 
with  accumulating  results?  If  the  latter  be  the  case, 
and  an  organism  may  evince  an  inherent  tendency  to 
pursue  some  definite  and  advantageous  line  of  growth, 
then  some  other  force  besides  the  action  of  natural 
selection  must  be  found  as  a  true  cause  of  evolution. 
The  question  also  is  now  raised  whether  natural  selec- 
tion has  worked,  as  Darwin  assumed,  through  numer- 
ous slight,  scarcely  perceptible  variations,  during  a  long 
period  of  time,  or  whether  sudden,  single  variations 
have  been  seized  upon  and  held  fast  as  the  means  of 
forming  new  species.^  Professor  Conn  seems  to  state 
correctly  the  drift  of  oj)inion  among  American  natural- 
ists especially,  wdien  he  says,  "  Now  it  has  been  a  grow- 
ing conviction  of  the  last  ten  years  that  variations  are 
not  simply  haphazard,  but  are  determinate.     This  has 

1  Mr.  Batesou's  work  on  Materials  for  the  Study  of  Variation  has  opened 
a  fresh  field  for  research  in  this  direction ;  he  finds  evidence  for  discon- 
tinuous variation.  One  of  the  latest  modifications  of  Darwin's  theory  is 
proposed  by  the  botanist,  Hugo  de  Vries,  in  his  recently  published  vol- 
umes on  Die  Mutationstheorie.  In  his  view  sudden,  single  variations, 
rather  than  slight  individual  variations,  produce  new  species,  and  in 
some  instances  in  a  few  generations.  Evolution  in  this  conception  of  it 
would  not  resemble  an  ascending  plane,  but  rather  a  flight  of  stairs,  — 
a  new  species  represents  not  so  much  an  accumulation  of  imperceptible 
differences,  but  a  new  step  of  nature.  These  mutations  are  still  under 
the  law  of  natural  selection.  But  tliis  whole  field  is  open  for  investiga- 
tion, and  in  botany  rather  than  in  zoology  the  causes  of  variation  now  at 
work  may  best  be  studied. 


244  THROUGH,  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

been  recognized  by  many  naturalists  working  in  differ- 
ent lines.  It  has  been  variously  called  '  conscious 
force,'  '  self-development,'  '  directive  tendency,'  'deter- 
minate variation,'  but  in  all  cases  it  is  the  recognition 
of  some  force  at  work  prior  to  selection,  which  controls 
variation  in  some  way.''^  The  palaeontologists  seem  to 
be  especially  impressed  with  the  fact,  which  their  study 
of  the  geological  succession  of  animals  emphasizes,  that 
the  "development  of  types  progresses  steadily  onward  in 
a  given  line."  They  find  "ever  a  constant  progress 
apparently  toward  a  definite  goal.  After  a  group  of 
animals  starts  on  a  certain  line  of  development,  it  fol- 
lows it  with  unmistakable  directness.  What  is  more 
significant  is  the  fact  that  many  kindred  groups  follow 
the  same  line."^  This  is  a  present  biological  task  to 
settle  the  question  by  new  studies  of  nature,  whether 
natural  selection  is  sufficient  to  explain  the  method  of 
this  progressive  development  along  definite  lines  with  a 
seemingly  irresistible  tendency,  or  whether  we  still  need 
to  learn  much  more  of  the  way  in  which  nature  has 
managed  to  press  on  as  toward  a  goal.  It  may  be  that 
the  answer  to  this  problem  will  be  found  to  transcend 
pure  biology,  and  that  the  final  explanation  of  progres- 
sive evolution  must  come  from  the  spiritual  side  of  the 
universe.  If  we  would  fill  such  phrases  as  internal 
growth-force,  or  a  perfecting  or  progressive  principle, 
with  real  meaning ;  if  we  may  gain  more  than  a  merely 
verbal  explanation  of  the  fact  of  progressive  evolution 

1  Method  of  Evolution,  p.  364. 

2  Opus  cit.,  p.  365.  Among  palaeontologists  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope  has 
argued  vigorously  that  evolution  follows  definite  lines  of  direction.  See 
his  Primary  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution,  and  Origin  of  the  Fittest. 


THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  245 

towards  definite  ends,  Ave  must  sooner  or  later  put 
spiritual  meanings  into  biological  phrases.  Whatever 
the  way  or  means  of  it,  the  fact  of  determinate  variation, 
for  its  ultimate  account  of  itself,  suggests  intelligent 
co-ordination  and  direction.  The  more  our  biology  can 
find  out  concerning  the  mechanism  of  it  all,  the  better; 
for  when  the  mechanics  of  the  universe  shall  be  known 
no  more  in  part,  but  fully,  we  shall  be  in  the  best 
possible  position  to  understand  the  necessary  place  and 
function  of  divine  Intelligence  in  it.  If  we  can  ever 
run  our  scientific  tunnel  far  enough  through  things,  we 
shall  probably  come  out  into  the  same  light  of  life  from 
which  we  start.  Think  a  little,  and  you  may  find  your- 
self in  the  dark  and  the  damp.  Think  long  enough  and 
deeply  enough,  and  you  may  think  yourself  through,  out 
into  the  divine  sunshine. 

In  this  connection  we  would  note  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Wallace,  who  with  Mr.  Darwin  discovered  the  role  of 
natural  selection,  and  who  is  disposed  to  assign  to  it 
the  leading  part  in  the  drama  of  life,  nevertheless  has 
marked  some  features  in  man's  development,  physical 
as  well  as  mental,  which  he  says  he  cannot  account  for 
solely  on  the  principle  of  natural  selection.  He  sug- 
gests that  in  man's  development  a  higher  Intelligence 
may  have  guided  its  course,  very  much  as  we  may  arti- 
ficially direct  natural  selection  in  raising  new  varie- 
ties of  plants  or  animals.  Whereupon  a  French  critic 
of  Mr.  Wallace  upbraids  him  for  regarding  man  as 
God's  domestic  animal.  The  critic,  however,  may  have 
touched  by  that  phrase  a  more  vital  truth  than  he 
knew.     For  it  is  conceivable  that  by  a  higher  Intelli- 


246  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

gence  natural  selection  may  be  guided  to  special  ends. 
In  that  case  a  special  providence  would  not  be  a  viola- 
tion of  natural  law,  any  more  than  the  artificial  selec- 
tion of  the  florist  or  the  pigeon-breeder  is  a  violation  of 
natural  law.  It  would  only  be  a  specific  use  of  it  by  an 
Intelligence  possessed  of  knowledge  enough  so  to  use 
it  for  his  own  good  purpose.  But  more  than  this  may 
be  suggested  to  us  by  the  phrase,  which  we  need  not 
altogether  dislike,  that  man  is  God's  domestic  animal. 
It  may  still  further  and  more  profoundly  be  true  that 
life  in  its  higher  forms,  through  natural  selection  if 
you  please,  acquires  more  and  more  power  to  be  domes- 
ticated. It  may  gain  wider  range  of  variability  and 
increased  capacity  to  be  guided  and  trained  to  some 
specific  ends,  if  there  be  Intelligence  so  to  befriend  and 
improve  it.  The  acquisition  of  mental  and  moral  power 
to  be  domesticated  by  the  God  of  all,  may  be  itself  one 
of  the  spiritual  achievements  of  evolution.  On  the 
basis  of  the  general  providential  direction  of  the  whole 
nature -process  there  may  be  formed  special  aptitudes 
for  definite  workings  of  the  Divine  energy.  If  so,  such 
special  guidance  of  man's  thoughts,  or  inspirations  of 
his  heart,  would  not  be  an  intrusion  into  the  natural 
course  of  life  of  something  foreign  to  it,  but  rather  an 
answer  to  its  true  prayer  and  a  fulfilment  of  its  natu- 
rally acquired  capacity  to  be  moved  and  guided  and 
uplifted  by  the  Spirit.  Religion  would  be  the  supreme 
naturalism.  A  special  providence  would  thus  be  a 
meeting  and  matching  at  the  prepared  point  of  the 
inward  capacity  and  the  outward,  spiritual  Power.  If 
man  be  in  deed  and  in  truth  God's  domesticated  animal, 


THE  PRINCIPLE    OF   COMPLETION  247 

the  old  parable  of  the  Master  does  not  lose  its  force; 
for  the  Shepherd  goes  before  the  sheep,  and  the  sheep 
know  the  Shepherd's  voice. ^ 

At  this  point  we  pause  to  note  both  the  agreement  of 
our  reasonings  with  biological  science,  and  the  diver- 
gence of  our  conclusion  from  some  evolutionary  philos- 
ophy.  We  have  accepted  from  the  start  the  first 
article  of  the  scientific  creed;  viz.,  the  genetic  unity 
of  the  whole  creation.  Without  hesitation  Ave  would 
regard  man  as  belonging  to  the  universe,  and  himself 
included  in  its  development.  His  life  is  possessed  not 
of  less,  but  of  more  value,  when  we  consider  what  it 
has  cost.  All  the  world  has  been  given  to  enable  him 
to  have  a  soul ;  shall  he  then  give  his  soul  in  exchange 
for  the  whole  world?  But  our  interpretation  of  the 
nature-process  as  a  whole,  and  its  end-result,  differs 
totally  from  tliat  evolutionary  philosophy  which  can 
discover  in  it  only  movement  without  aim,  and  change 
without  progress.  A  German  physiologist,  from  whom 
we  may  learn  much  as  to  the  facts  of  evolution  (Ver- 
worn),  would  lightly  waive  the  idea  of  an  advance  and 
hence  of  a  goal  in  nature.  He  remarks :  "  The  concep- 
tion of  advance,  of  perfecting,  involves  a  goal  toward 
which  the  advance  is  directed.  Without  this  it  is  an 
empty  conception." 2  That  is  truly  said.  To  perceive 
a  fact  of  progression  through  a  series  of  forms,  and  to 
deny  the  idea  of  a  goal,  is  to  empty  the  process  of  its 
meaning.     That  is  2)recisely  our  position,  that  our  entire 

1  At  this  place  iu  the  naturalist's  view  room  would  be  opened  for  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  prayer  and  its  answer. 

2  Gen.  P/ii/s.  p.  318. 


248  THROUGH  SCIENCE   TO  FAITH 

knowledge  of  the  nature -process  is  rendered  vacant  of 
intelligible  meaning,  if  it  is  emptied  of  the  idea  of  a 
goal.  Professor  Verworn,  however,  after  noticing  the 
necessity  of  the  process  of  organic  development,  con- 
tinues in  this  strain:  "The  employment,  therefore,  of 
the  idea  of  advance  or  perfecting  is  evidence  merely  of 
an  anthropocentric  standpoint:  we  introduce  ourselves 
into  the  development  as  the  goal."  Yes;  hut  the  fact 
is  we  do  not  introduce  ourselves ;  nature  has  introduced 
us  into  the  development  as  a  goal.  Here  we  are.  And 
we  are  here  sufficiently  evolved  to  need  considerable  ex- 
planation. We  are  here  to  know  ourselves,  and  to  inter- 
pret nature.  If  at  the  end  of  a  long  tramp  through  the 
wild  forest,  after  following  the  trail  all  day  long,  you 
come  out  to  a  clearing,  and  find  a  good  camp  and  supper, 
and  companionship  of  men,  you  have  a  right  to  infer 
that  the  tote-road  which  you  had  followed  must  have 
had  some  reference  to  the  logger's  camp  and  fire  as  its 
end.  Nature  herself,  as  the  end-result  of  her  own  pro- 
cess, has  brought  us  to  an  anthropocentric  standpoint. 
But  Verworn  continues :  "  The  goal  is  an  artificial  thing 
which  does  not  exist  in  nature ;  the  assumption  that  man- 
kind is  more  perfect  than  an  amceha  is  not  justified  by 
reality."  We  may  observe  that  it  is  justified  on  our 
scale  of  vital  values ;  and  that  scale  corresponds  to  the 
reality.  Evolution  has  brought  life  up  to  a  point  of 
organized  life  and  happiness  where  we  naturally  assume 
that  a  man  is  of  more  value  than  an  amoeba.  That  man 
would  be  far  too  modest  who  should  waive  this  human 
claim.  In  fact  this  philosopher  does  not  so  easily  escape 
himself  from  the  anthropocentric   standpoint.     For  he 


THE   PIIINCIPLE   OF  COMPLETION  249 

puts  an  interpretation  of  his  own  upon  nature's  facts, 
when  he  empties  evolution  of  the  idea  of  a  goal.  That 
is  an  assertion  which  he  brings  to  nature.  Nature  cer- 
tainly suggests  another  interpretation.  Which  is  the 
best  idea  of  her  processes  ?  We  certainly  do  not  know 
enough  to  exclude  the  naturally  suggested  idea  of  an 
end  or  goal  of  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  world. 
It  is  sheer  presumption  to  deny  it.  For  the  nature- 
process  at  least  goes  on  just  as  it  might  have  gone  on,  if 
there  is  a  goal  towards  which  all  things  move.  So, 
and  not  otherwise,  nature  could  proceed;  in  this  way  of 
natural  selection  as  an  excellent,  and  possibly  as  the  best 
way,  nature  might  go  on  to  perfection,  if  it  were  from  the 
beofinnino'  an  ideal  creation,  and  all  its  elements  and  laws 
had  been  thought  out  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 
If  the  Alpha  and  Omega  be  Spirit,  the  process  between 
may  be  nature.  The  natural  proceeds  from  the  spiritual 
to  the  spiritual.  It  is  intelligible  only  as  a  process  of 
thought.  We  only  make  a  needless  riddle  of  natural 
law,  if  we  say,  evolution  moves  evidently  towards  an 
end,  and  with  increasing  determination;  yet  it  has  no 
end-result  as  a  goal.  Nature  going  on  always  without 
reason,  would  be  forever  something  inexplicable  to  reason. 
We  have  acquired  reason ;  we  turn,  and  look  back,  and 
evolution  seems  rational.  ^  "  I  know  "  —  so  man's  self- 
consciousness  finds  its  supreme  expression  in  the 
absolute  certainty  of  the  Son  of  man  —  "  whence  I  came 
and  whither  I  go." 

1  See  Ward,  Agnosticism  and  Naturalism,  ii.  p.  24. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   PROPHETIC    VALUE   OF   UNFINISHED   NATURE 

The  French  astronomer,  Laplace,  reduced  the  heavens 
to  a  series  of  mathematical  demonstrations,  and  had 
no  need  of  God  in  his  hypothesis.  The  assertion  has 
often  been  repeated  by  those  who  regard  nature  as  an 
extended  system  of  mechanics  that  a  Laplacean  cal- 
culator, if  he  had  a  sufficient  mathematical  knowledge  of 
the  universe  at  any  one  period  of  it,  might  predict 
truthfully  its  condition  at  any  future  age.  From 
knowledge  of  a  limited  arc,  it  is  said,  the  whole  curve 
of  time  might  be  described.  All  that  is  lacking  is  an 
intelligence  omniscient  enough  to  make  the  calculation. 
The  universe  is  thus  supposed  to  be  comprehensible  as  a 
mathematical  equation ;  all  that  is  needed  is  an  intelli- 
gence able  to  work  out  the  equation. 

We  will  not  press  just  now  the  argument  that  such 
mathematical  pre-calculation  of  natural  events  is  con- 
ceivable only  l)ecause  the  world  is  rationally  made;  that 
the  course  of  nature  could  be  intelligently  computed 
because  it  is  intelligently  constituted ;  and  that  conse- 
quently Laplace  may  have  had  more  ultimate  need  of  a 
God  in  his  astronomy  than  he  thought :  but  we  cite  this 
hypothesis  for  another  purpose;  it  will  serve  to  bring 
out  the  truth  that  in  an  orderly  and  intelligible  world 

250 


PROPHETIC  VALUE   OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE     251 

the  known  parts  and  the  observable  tendencies  of  things 
may  be  enough  to  warrant  some  scientific  forecast  of 
coming  conditions  and  of  further  fulfihnents.  The 
existing  constitution  of  things  has  some  predictive  value. 
From  what  is,  avc  may  to  some  extent  scientifically  fore- 
cast what  shall  be. 

This  is  eminently  true  of  nature's  last  order  of  the 
organic  kingdom.  I^ecause  it  is  an  order,  and  because 
it  is  a  developing  order,  it  admits  of  rational  forecast. 
From  the  known  elements  of  the  curve  of  our  human 
life,  some  calculation  of  its  further  sweep  may  be  made. 
The  tendency  towards  completion  which  we  follow 
within  the  bounds  of  experience,  to  some  extent  may  be 
followed  prophetically  beyond  the  limits  of  present  ex- 
perience. We  may  see  in  what  direction  it  looks.  We 
cannot  drop,  then,  this  principle  of  completion  until 
we  shall  have  considered  not  only  what  it  means  as  a 
character  of  evolution,  but  also  Avhat  it  signifies  j^ro- 
phetically  for  us. 

What  is  the  outlook  for  our  life  from  the  point  of 
view  which  our  argument  has  now  gained  ?  Regarding 
evolution  as  a  progressive  movement  towards  higher 
vital  values,  and  having  discovered  that  nature,  in  the 
co-working  of  all  factors,  and  by  every  method,  makes  in 
time  the  utmost  of  her  material,  and  will  finish  what 
she  has  begun,  we  are  scientifically  justified  in  raising 
the  question  of  most  personal  concern  for  us,  —  Toward 
what  further  issues  of  life  be3^ond  life  shall  the  whole 
age-long  process  work  on?  If  in  seeking  answer  to  this 
questioning  we  must  look  beyond  observed  facts,  we 
shall   sight,  as  it  were,   along   the    line  of  the  known 


252  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

course  of  nature  as  we  look  away  toward  the  world-age 
to  come. 

The  validity  of  this  principle  of  prediction  from  our 
knowledge  of  the  tendency  of  nature  towards  completion, 
will  at  once  become  clearly  a]3parent,  if  we  imagine  our- 
selves to  be  observers  who  have  taken  their  stand  at 
some  past  period  of  time,  in  some  earlier  geologic  age, 
and  from  that  position  have  sought  to  predict  the  future 
development  of  the  world.  We  can  perceive  how  an 
observer  so  placed,  if  possessed  of  sufficient  reasoning 
power,  might  read  forv/ard  with  much  prophetic  assur- 
ance lines  of  growth  which  w^e  have  now  learned  to  read 
backward.  The  carboniferous  age,  if  observed  by  such 
a  studious  eye,  and  interpreted  in  its  relation  to  the 
preceding  ages  which  had  led  up  to  it,  might  have  dis- 
closed signs  of  preparation  for  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth,  wherein  the  sun  should  shine  through  a  sky 
cleared  of  vapors,  and  the  dry  land  should  teem  with 
fairer  life.  Or  suppose  that  to  an  intelligent  observer 
in  by-gone  geological  ages  there  had  been  shown  some 
partly  perfected  organ,  like  the  gills  and  lung-sacs  of 
larval  amphibian  animals,  or  some  half-formed  audi- 
tory apparatus,  or  an  unfinished  eye.  He  would  have 
had  for  the  ground  of  his  prophesying  the  earlier  stages 
and  successive  steps  up  to  that  time  in  the  history  of 
these  organs.  He  would  have  noticed  their  increasing 
adaptation  to  a  half-disclosed  outward  element  of  air 
and  light.  He  could  have  followed  for  some  way 
onwards  a  seeming  progress  toward  something  yet  to 
be  revealed.  From  this  history  of  partial  yet  definite 
development  he  might  have  predicted  better  things  to 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE     253 

come ;  he  might  have  been  reasonably  confident  tliat  in 
time  a  perfect  organ  of  vision  woukl  be  finished  from 
a  primitive  eye-cup;  or  that  from  rudimentary  hearing, 
like  that  provided  by  the  bell-like  depression  and  clapper 
of  a  primitive  ear,  or  the  tuning-fork  of  an  insect's 
antenna,  in  the  course  of  the  ages  an  ear  for  music 
might  be  formed.  And  such  prophecy  would  have 
become  more  definite  and  sure  in  proportion  as  the 
development  advanced,  —  as  the  lung-sacs  became  more 
obviously  adapted  to  some  life-giving  element,  or  the 
ear  more  responsive  to  murmurings  borne  in  from  the 
outer  air,  or  the  eye  more  open  to  a  world  of  color  and 
of  beauty.  The  principle,  the  sure  principle  of  natural 
prophecy,  is,  that  partially  developed  organs,  and  antic- 
ipatory adaptations  to  some  waiting  environment  are 
destined  to  be  fulfilled;  that  nature  will  not  stop  nor 
tarry  till  all  her  decrees  of  perfection  shall  be  com- 
pleted. Prophecy  has  scientific  claim  when  it  essays  to 
carry  out  any  great  vital  principle  into  fulfilments  of  it 
beyond  our  present  experience.  Such  prophecy  is  first 
a  perception  of  that  which  lies  vital  and  germinant  in 
the  existing  world-order;  —  it  is  first  insight,  and  then 
foresight.  The  future  age  is  not  to  be  looked  for  as 
something  which  shall  come  unheralded  and  with  vio- 
lence from  without  the  existing  order  of  the  world. 
There  maybe  divine  surprise  in  its  glory;  conditions  of 
life  beyond  imagination  may  come  as  in  a  moment;  but 
the  reality  of  the  hereafter  shall  be  the  continuation  to 
perfection  of  the  main  lines,  and  of  the  essential,  vital 
worths  of  our  present  life.  Hence  our  science  of  life, 
so  far  as  it  may  give  to  us  deeper  insight  into  the  per- 


254  THROUGH   SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

inanent  wants  and  the  constructive  principles  of  the 
present  order,  may  open  for  us  larger,  truer  prophetic 
vision.  In  this  way  biology  also  may  be  found  among 
the  prophets.  And  our  expectation  for  the  future  of 
life  on  this  earth,  and  beyond  that,  our  hope  for  the 
satisfaction  of  our  personal  life  in  some  happier  envi- 
ronment hereafter,  to  which  all  our  spiritual  powers 
shall  be  fully  grown,  and  perfectly  responsive,  —  this 
grand  prophetic  trust  of  our  human  hearts  lies  deeply 
inwrought  with  this  truth  that  nature  can  be  trusted  to 
keep  forever  her  word  of  life.  She  can  be  trusted  to 
keep  her  promise  of  life  beyond  our  sight.  The  prin- 
ciple of  completion  will  not  break  down,  nor  its  natural 
strength  be  abated,  until  our  human  life  likewise  shall 
be  carried,  from  the  depths  of  its  organic  needs,  and  in 
the  loftiness  of  its  aspirations,  to  its  perfection  in  the 
world  to  come. 

Cherishing  this  clear  faith  that  nature's  tendency 
towards  completion  will  not  fail  us,  as  it  has  not  failed 
the  life  before  us,  we  may  now  use  it,  therefore,  with  some 
scientific  confidence  as  a  principle  of  predictive  value. 

We  may  confidently  make,  to  begin  with,  one  of  the 
most  obvious  predictions  from  this  principle;  viz.,  that 
useful  variations  will  be  carried  forward  to  supremacy. 
It  is  the  known  habit  of  nature  to  seize  upon  and  make 
the  most  of  useful  varieties.  We  may  expect  disad- 
vantageous variations  to  disappear  in  time  from  the  life 
of  humanity.  The  current  of  human  life  and  history 
will  clear  itself,  if  further  moral  corruption  be  prevented. 
The  natural  prophets  of  life  are  all  optimists  ~  ulti- 
mate optimists,   we  mean. 


PROPHETIC  VALUE   OF  UNFINISHED   NATURE     255 

Moreover,  we  have  reason  scientifically  to  expect 
further  and  happier  adaptations  of  life  and  environment, 
although  within  limits  and  through  transformations 
which  we  shall  presently  consider.  We  may  count  with 
confidence  upon  the  fulfilment  of  vital  possibilities. 
The  process  of  making  the  most  of  living  material  has 
been  brought  in  the  history  of  life  so  far,  and  with  such 
persistency,  that  we  may  reasonably  conclude  it  will  not 
stop  nor  be  stayed  until  the  utmost  that  can  still  be 
made  from  the  natural  material  shall  have  been  worked 
out.  These  anticipations  involve  the  ineeting  and  har- 
monizing of  inner  and  outward  factors  and  elements,  and 
the  satisfaction  in  such  concord  of  organic  wants. 
Hunger  in  nature  is  always  something  prophetic. 
What  life  begins  to  need,  to  feel  from  Avithin  that  it 
must  find,  shall  eventually  be  supplied  from  without. 
And  the  completed  outward  conditions  will  awaken  full 
response  from  within.  The  two  meet  and  eventually 
are  matched.  The  finished  eye  opens  in  the  perfect 
light.  The  process  of  development  through  the  ages  is 
an  evolution  of  the  environment  as  Avell  as  of  the  life; 
the  end  shall  be  the  best  possible  in  the  harmony  of 
the  two. 

On  the  last  height  of  nature's  ascent  appears  the 
unfinished  life  of  man.     What  is  its  prophetic  value? 

Man  marks  the  culmination  of  evolution  so  far  as  it 
has  been  revealed  within  the  limits  of  visible  nature. 
The  lines  of  evolution  converge  all  upon  him.  Its  nat- 
ural prophecies  find  in  him  their  promised  Messiah: — ■ 
but  what  does  he  signify?     What  does  ho  in  his  pros- 


256  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

ent  incompleteness  mean?  Is  his  coming  the  end  of 
the  old,  or  is  it  also  the  beginning  of  a  new  dispensa- 
tion? Through  his  earthly  life  may  we  look  forward 
still,  or  is  there  nothing  beyond,  and  has  all  been  ful- 
filled ?     Is  there  conceivable  a  second  coming  of  Man  ? 

In  certain  directions  nature  seems  to  have  come  to  an 
end,  or  nearly  to  an  end,  in  man's  physical  organization. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  what  we  have  said  in  another 
connection  (p.  180)  of  the  apparent  finality  of  the 
adaptations  of  atomic  matter  for  the  use  of  mind  in  man's 
body.  A  further  confirmation  of  this  view  that  physi- 
ological evolution  has  come  to  its  climax  in  man,  onl}^ 
minor  modifications  remaining  possible,  is  afforded  by 
the  consideration  that  no  great  change  has  taken  place 
in  man's  physical  powers  and  aptitudes  since  in  some  far 
distant  age  he  first  appeared  on  the  earth.  Prehistoric 
man  was  physically  of  the  same  species  as  the  present 
generation  of  men.  He  had,  so  Mr.  Wallace  assures 
us,  as  large  a  skull.  His  physical  preparation  w^as 
sufficiently  finished  for  the  beginning  of  his  mental 
growth.  If  man's  development  is  to  be  pressed  still  fur- 
ther, and  a  body  organized  for  him  of  still  finer  fitness 
for  spiritual  service,  it  would  seem  that  some  matter  of 
life,  still  more  ethereal,  must  l)e  used  for  higher  adapta- 
tion to  the  service  of  the  spirit  that  is  in  man.  We  have 
no  knowledge  to  warrant  us  in  denying  that  such  finer 
matter  for  life  may  not  already  exist  waiting  for  man's 
better  embodiment.  We  can  perceive  that  further 
ascent,  if  there  is  to  be  such  for  him,  must  be  won 
through  some  natural  crisis,  and  by  the  appearing  at  the 
next  critical   point  of  some  higher  order  of  existence. 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE    257 

Continuous  development  for  man's  life  may  be  reached, 
as  before  man  continuous  develo})nient  has  often  been 
maintained,  by  an  apparently  sudden  change  of  condi- 
tions, through  another  and  the  greatest  of  nature's 
transformation  scenes.  But  there  are  limits  in  the 
present  visible  physical  order  for  man's  development; 
he  must  live  up  into  a  higher  order,  if  he  is  to  pass  on. 

Suitable  illustration  of  the  final  limits  of  one  order 
of  nature,  and  of  progress  beyond  it  by  birth  into 
conditions  which  transcend  it,  may  be  draAvn  from 
familiar  fields.  The  evolution  of  our  instruments  of 
scientific  research  furnishes  a  helpful  comparison.  For 
example,  the  telescope  has  been  developed  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  to  the  limits  of  clear,  colorless  definition  which 
are  fixed  by  the  laws  of  light.  If  our  knowledge  of  the 
number  of  the  stars  is  to  be  carried  farther  than  the  eye 
of  the  telescope  can  pierce,  we  must  invent  a  new  in- 
strument adapted  to  some  still  higher  power  of  our  envi- 
ronment; and  this  our  astronomers  have  found,  for  they 
have  availed  themselves  of  the  actinic  rays  which  lie  in 
the  spectrum  above  the  visible  rays,  and  the  sensitive 
photographic  plate,  exposed  to  the  skies,  has  disclosed 
the  existence  of  stars  beyond  stars  which  no  telescope 
can  ever  reveal.  The  evolution  of  scientific  instru- 
ments for  reading  the  language  of  the  heavens  came  to 
an  end  in  one  direction,  and  reached  the  limit  of  possi- 
bility on  one  plane,  and  then  it  was  begun  anew  on  a 
different  plane,  and  in  the  revelations  of  the  new  the 
glory  of  the  old  dispensation  is  surpassed.  We  are 
thinking  that  similarly,  or  in  a  wa}-  in  which  this  may  be 
an  aid  to  our  imagination,  the  spirit  in  man  might  be 

17 


258  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

supposed  to  receive  a  new  instrument  for  its  life,  and  one 
of  higher  power  more  sensitively  adapted  to  the  heavens, 
than  is  afforded  by  a  body  of  molecular  matter  even  in 
its  perfection  of  adaptation  in  the  human  brain  to  our 
perception  of  the  visible  world.  Something  more  refined 
than  the  exquisite  nerve  of  sight,  as  an  organ  for  man's 
knowledge,  must  be  prepared  for  us,  to  disclose  the  glory 
of  the  heavens  which  are  now  unseen.  We  must  be  still 
more  spiritually  organized  to  see  God  and  live. 

There  is  a  principle  of  completion  in  nature,  and  as  it 
is  applied  to  our  life  it  signifies  that  we  also  shall  be 
made  perfect.  As  we  follow  it  out,  and,  with  a  confidence 
in  it  increasing  with  our  knowledge  of  its  thorough- 
ness as  a  natural  principle,  apply  it  to  our  life  and  its 
fulfilment,  we  ask  in  what  further  wa3^s  may  we  look 
for  our  human  evolution?  how  shall  unfinished  nature 
in  us  also  be  made  perfect  and  entire  ?  We  have  come 
to  the  seeming  end  of  one  whole  physiological  order  of 
development,  yet  only  to  a  beginning  of  our  inner  life 
of  power  and  love  ;  —  it  were  unnatural,  should  the 
process  stop,  —  what  shall  the  end  be  ? 

There  is  one  direction  which  we  have  thus  far  only 
generally  considered,  in  which  the  higher  evolution  of 
man  is  conceivable,  —  that  is  the  further  advantageous 
development  of  his  environment.  Let  us  examine  this 
possibility,  therefore,  more  particularly. 

Evolutionary  writers  have  repeatedly  noticed  the 
striking  change  which  evolution  has  undergone  in  the 
age  of  man,  as  the  emphasis  of  it  has  been  transferred 
from  man  to  his  environment.  Human  development  has 
been    very    largely    a    development    of    enviroinnent. 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE     259 

Human  history  has  been  a  betterment  of  man's  condi- 
tions and  a  vast  multiplication  of  the  means  of  liis  life. 
Our  environment  is  not  merely  a  phj^sical  one,  and  its 
improvement  has  not  consisted  simply  in  better  habita- 
tions, fitter  food,  more  sanitary  conditions,  and  greater 
command  of  the  elemental  forces  of  nature.  Our  human 
environment  is  also  social,  intellectual,  moral.  We 
possess  in  it  Avhat  is  called  the  increment  of  tradition. 
The  words  which  a  child  now  learns  are 

"  Words  that  have  drawn  transcendent  meanings  up 
From  the  best  passion  of  all  bygone  time." 

Historic  soil  is  rich.  In  further  improvement  of  our 
environment,  therefore,  we  may  hope  for  happier  devel- 
opment of  humanity.  Looking  on  in  this  direction,  our 
philanthropists  give,  our  educators  toil,  our  statesmen 
build,  our  thinkers  lead,  and  our  socialists  dream.  So 
when  the  social  environment  shall  be  best  fitted  to  man's 
individual  life,  men  say  the  kingdom  of  heaven  will 
have  come  on  the  earth.  But  even  thus  will  it  so  come 
as  it  is  in  heaven  ? 

Let  us  suppose  that  evolution,  Avhich  has  already 
neared  its  end  in  the  physiological  life  of  man,  shall 
have  entered  upon  a  happier  era  in  man's  social  condi- 
tion; would  that  be  the  end  of  the  vista  of  life's 
promise?  Would  that  close  the  book  of  the  prophecy 
of  life's  age-long  tendency  towards  completion  ? 

We  must  here  take  account  of  some  lines  of  develop- 
ment which  would  not  be  finished,  and  some  human 
wants  of  vital  essentiality  which  would  be  left  unsatis- 
fied, even  if  such  social  perfection  should  come  at  some 
future  age  upon  the  earth. 


260  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

One  of  these  unfinished  lines  of  life,  which  on  the 
scientific  principle  of  progressive  completion  we  may 
hope  with  a  vital  trust  to  see  sometime  continued  unto 
2:>erfection,  is  the  relation  of  the  spirit  within  us  to  its 
outward  element.  Eternal  life  involves  in  its  scientific 
idea  perfect  adaptation  to  perfect  environment.  The 
full  conception  of  life's  completion  can  be  realized  only 
in  the  achievement  on  the  one  side  of  real  spiritual 
freedom  —  a  spiritual  character  made  safe  forever  in  its 
moral  integrity ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  fitness  for 
it  of  some  environment  corresponding  fully  to  its  being, 
as  the  air  answers  to  the  life  for  its  breath,  or  the 
light  answers  to  the  eye  for  its  vision.  This  is  the 
scientific  idea  of  perfect  life,  if  life  in  us  is  ever  to  reach 
forward  to  perfection.  It  is  the  full  and  final  harmony 
of  the  spirit  which  is  in  man  with  the  revealed  presence 
of  God  in  all  the  universe  without.  It  is  the  whole 
truth  of  that  one  deep  word  of  the  Master:  To  know 
God  is  eternal  life.  To  be  a  being  who  can  know, 
and  to  be  in  relation  to  the  divine,  which  is  knowing, 
—  that  is  full,  harmonized  life,  —  the  eternal  kind  of 
life. 

Man's  unfinished  life  in  its  present  spiritual  being 
and  knowing  is  nature's  present  prophecy  of  this  con- 
summation of  it.  We  have  this  true  life  as  yet  only 
in  its  rudiments.  We  possess  our  immortality  now, 
but  only  in  its  prophetic  beginnings.  Reflect  how  far, 
of  all  the  children  of  nature,  man  still  is  from  happy 
adjustment  to  his  native  air  and  element.  He  is  not 
yet  spiritual  master  of  the  universe  in  which  he  was 
born  to  reign.     Its  forces  mock  him ;  its  elements  over- 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE    261 

master  him ;  a  microbe  may  rob  him  of  his  strength ;  a 
single  cell,  living  for  itself  in  his  bodily  tissues,  may 
quickly  destroy  him.  Only  a  thin  crust  of  one  of  the 
least  of  the  heavenly  bodies  offers  him  slieltcr,  and  he  lias 
not  yet  received  the  freedom  of  the  skies.  His  intellect 
transcends  the  bounds  of  his  narrow  abode,  but  the  stars 
are  more  tlian  he  can  number ;  and  the  dust  of  his  own 
little  earth  hides  from  his  science  its  elemental  secrets. 
He  must  serve  the  outward  powers  which  he  is  con- 
scious that  he  was  born  to  rule.  The  age  of  the  spirit 
is  not  yet  come,  it  is  only  coming,  in  the  reign  of 
man.  Every  new  art  acquired,  every  scientific  lordship 
which  is  won  over  natural  forces,  every  larger  general- 
ization of  his  knowledge,  evinces  his  natural  supremacy 
of  spirit,  and  is  prophetic  of  his  rightful  sovereignty ; 
nevertheless,  man  in  his  present  mastery  over  the 
visible  universe  is  still  only  heir  apparent,  and  not  yet 
king  enthroned.  He  stands  not  yet  at  the  centre,  and 
radiant,  the  visible  universe  made  subject  to  him,  — 
even  as  a  Christian  prophet  saw  an  angel  standing  in 
the  sun.  Can  lordship  like  that  be  expected  under 
the  limitations  of  man's  immediate  embodiment,  and  in 
his  present  imperfect  relation  to  the  material  crea- 
tion ?  Or  shall  his  spirit  enter  into  some  freer  and 
happier  adjustment  to  environment  more  fitted  to  its 
nature,  in  order  that  its  perfection  of  power  may  be 
realized  ? 

There  is  nothing  in  our  knowledge  of  nature  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  some  more  spiritual  relation  of 
mind  to  matter.  We  may  say  with  the  poet-philosopher 
Herder  that  embodiment  is  the  end  of  all  God's  ways 


262  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

on  earth ;  but  we  have  no  scientific  reason  to  deny  that 
this  earthly  embodiment  may  itself  be  but  the  beginning 
and  prelude  of  some  better  embodiment  in  the  heavens. 
Embodiment,  as  we  know  it,  may  itself  be  as  the  seed  of 
a  new  order,  the  first  stage  in  a  new  process  of  evolution, 
the  open  way  towards  a  life  which  shall  be  made  perfect 
in  its  spiritual  touch  and  contact  with  the  outward 
universe.  Because  death  brings  to  an  end  the  present 
and  perhaps  rudimentary  form  of  embodiment,  we  are 
not  scientifically  or  rationally  justified  in  concluding 
that  the  process  of  embodiment  for  spiritual  life  has 
come  to  an  end,  or  that  it  is  not  to  be  continued  in 
some  other  and  fairer  growth  and  fruition.  The  final 
completion  would  be  the  self-conscious  spirit  in  per- 
fect touch  with  the  universe;  and  towards  comple- 
tion the  whole  creation  tends.  This  is  the  positive 
momentum  of  the  argument  from  nature  for  our  im- 
mortality, —  towards  completion  our  life  also  must 
tend. 

The  naturalness  of  this  expectation  of  future  life  in 
happier  adaptation  to  material  environment,  or  the  open 
scientific  way  for  the  soul's  immortal  hope,  may  appear 
further  wlien  we  reflect  upon  an  aspect  of  evolution  with 
which  naturalists  are  often  deeply  impressed.  We  refer 
to  the  critical  points  which  occur  in  the  processes  of 
nature,  at  which,  without  breach  of  continuity  but  with 
very  slight  modification  in  physical  conditions,  a  vast 
change  is  brought  about,  and  an  entirely  new  series  of 
actions  in  nature  is  effected.  Evolution  is  continuous 
as  energy,  but  it  is  not  uniform  in  its  effects.  Crises 
occur  when  suddenly  new  qualities  are  taken  on   and 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE    263 

great  transformations  are  accomplished. ^  Such  critical 
changes  in  natural  evolution  are  properly  adduced  as 
instances  to  show  the  larger  possibilities  of  life  than  may 
now  appear.  A  familiar  yet  ever  wonderful  example, 
often  cited,  is  the  entire  change  of  conditions  and  the 
assumption  of  new  qualities  which  take  place  in  the 
history  of  a  drop  of  Avater  at  different  degrees  of  tem- 
perature. Nature  certainly  admits  of  wondrous  trans- 
formations, which  could  not  have  been  previously 
conceived,  and  now  hardly  could  be  believed,  had  they 
not  been  commonly  witnessed.  The  law  of  the  conserva- 
tion of  energy  does  not  exclude,  rather  it  renders  possible 
for  our  life  also  some  great  transformation.  The  connec- 
tion of  soul  with  body,  the  dependence  of  the  personal 
being  with  his  inherited  individuality  upon  the  molecular 
matter  of  his  body,  is  a  very  slight  and  easily  changed 
connection ;  it  is  no  fast  and  indissoluble  bond.  In  its 
embryonic  beginning  it  is  all  contained  and  conditioned 
in  a  mere  dot  of  microscopic  matter.  The  physiolog- 
ical connection  of  men  from  generation  to  generation  is 
a  merest  thread  of  protoplasmic  substance.  It  is  almost 
too  small  for  the  microscope  to  render  it  perceptible. 
One  thing  which  biology  makes  plain  —  and  the  plain- 
ness of  it  may  awaken  awe  —  is  this  fact  that  mind  does 
not  need  for  its  birth  and  its  coming  to  its  inheritance, 
a  whole  body,  a  complete  brain,  a  fully  formed  organ  of 
sense,  or  so  much  as  a  single  nerve ;  a  few  microscopic 
threads  of  chromatin  matter  in  the  Qgg  are  enough. 
To  dimensions   so   infinitesimal  is   the   dependence   of 

1  These  points  of  apparently  rapid  transformation  are  happily  called  by 
Cope  "  expression  points."     Primary  Factors,  etc.,  p.  25. 


264  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

personal  individuality  upon  the  physical  world  reduced 
in  its  origin.  But  death,  like  birth,  is  a  critical  point 
—  another  crisis  in  the  continuous  history  of  life.  The 
little  that  we  know  of  birth  into  the  world  does  not 
warrant  us  in  saying  that  death  out  of  it  cannot  be  a 
new  birth  into  other  and  larger  relations  with  the  uni- 
verse. And  what  we  do  know  of  the  slightness  of  the 
connection  of  personal  life  with  matter  at  its  birth, 
does  justify  us  scientifically  in  affirming  that  the  disso- 
lution of  a  body  is  not  necessarily  the  destruction  of  all 
relation  of  the  individual  to  the  outward  universe.  The 
bridge  for  the  open  way  of  the  soul,  both  at  birth  and 
death,  may  be  laid  from  the  foundations  of  the  world, 
although  it  may  not  in  either  case  be  visible  to  our 
senses.  Biology  has  no  knowledge  from  which  to  bring 
a  negative  to  life  and  its  transmission  either  from  be- 
fore birth  or  after  death.  It  leaves  the  onward  way  of 
the  soul  clear.  Such  being  the  case,  the  positive  argu- 
ment, which  we  have  just  adduced  from  nature's  great, 
vital  principle  of  completion,  finds  room  and  may  be 
allowed  free  scope  in  our  hope  of  immortality. 

Into  the  depths  of  this  great  truth  of  nature  our  own 
Whittier  struck  the  roots  of  his  fair,  sweet  faith  in  the 
Eternal  Goodness,  and  from  it  grew  the  richness  of  his 
life's  autumnal  song: 

' '  And  present  gratitude 
Insures  the  future's  good, 
And  for  the  things  I  see 
I  trust  the  things  to  be. 

"  Parcel  and  part  of  all, 
I  keep  the  festival, 
Fore-reach  the  good  to  be, 
And  share  the  victory. 


PROPHETIC  VALUE   OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE     265 

"  I  feel  the  earth  move  sunward, 
1  join  the  great  march  onward, 
And  take,  by  faith,  while  living, 
My  freehold  of  thanksgiving." 

To  this  trust  in  nature,  from  which  springs  sweetest 
faith,  one  other  great  triumphal  principle  of  life  adds 
its  clear  word  of  prophetic  expectation.  We  appeal  to 
nature's  increasing  estimate  of  individuality  in  compari- 
son with  the  species.  You  will  recall  the  process  of 
individuality  which  we  may  trace  from  far  beginnings. 
Individuality  we  have  seen  to  be  one  of  nature's  ends. 
The  last  word  of  organic  development  is  the  individual 
and  his  worth.  The  idea  of  the  perfection  of  the  indi- 
vidual person  is  involved,  therefore,  in  any  scientific 
conception  of  the  completion  of  evolution.  The  per- 
fection of  the  individual  person  is  an  essential  part  of  a 
fulfilment  of  life  which  can  be  scientifically  conceived. 
For  life  would  not  be  carried  out  to  completion  on  one 
of  its  main  lines,  it  would  stop  short  and  be  turned 
back  in  one  of  its  progressive  and  dominant  principles, 
if  individuality  should  be  gained  only  to  be  lost,  if  the 
person  should  miserably  perish,  and  only  the  species 
survive,  only  the  life  of  humanity  continue.  The  most 
significant,  yet  usually  overlooked  fact  that,  as  evolu- 
tion proceeds,  the  interest  of  the  individual  in  life  be- 
comes greater,  or  as  it  may  with  equal  truth  be  put,  the 
interest  of  life  in  the  individual  becomes  greater,  is  of 
supreme  interpretative  value,  and  it  throws  a  flood  of 
light  along  our  future  way.  In  man  the  individual  has 
become  paramount.  His  personality  stands  out  against 
the  sky  as  nature's  supreme  fact.     Man,  the  individual, 


266  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

has  acquired  survival  value.        Lower  down  the   indi- 
vidual was  sacrificed  to  the  species ;  on  the  height  the 
species  exists  also  for  the  individual.     Personal  immor- 
tality is  now  and  henceforth  nature's  conceivable  best. 
And  nature's  best  is  nature's  sure  word  of  the  coming 
life.     Add  then  to  trust  in  the  principle  of  completion 
this   consideration   that  nature's   possible   best   is   the 
individual  possessed  of  immortal  survival  value,  and  the 
natural  argument  for  the  continuation  of  personal  life 
through  better  adaptations  to  the  outward  universe  be- 
comes rounded  out  and  clear.     The  promise  of  life  from 
the  far  past,  and  in  the  present  unfinished  world,  nature 
will   keep  in   the   unknown   future.      Hence   in   tlieir 
hunger  and  thirst  for  life  our  human  hearts  become  their 
own  true  prophets,  and  our  best  human  life  is  its  own 
sure  interpreter.     We  must  learn  oar  song  from   our 
life.     The  incompleteness  which  we  so  deeply  know,  the 
strangle  brokenness  of  so  much  human  life  and  love,  the 
utter  unintelligibleness  to  our  thought  and  feeling  of 
our  personal  life,  if  it  has  no  larger  sweep,  no  fuller 
joy,  no  heavenly  freedom,  —  all  this  present  partialness 
of  our  truest  and  worthiest  achievement  is  as  one  grand 
annunciation,  ever  growing  clearer  and  fuller,  of   the 
life  to  come,  if  indeed  we  have  ears  to  hear  nature's  one 
deepest  truth  in  the  voice  and  story  of  all  unfinished  life. 
The  power  of  nature's  continuance  in  well  doing  which 
the  whole  progressive  revelation  of  evolution  declares, 
shall  not  fail  us  in  our  hour  of  mortal  change.     This 
strong  principle  shall  not  prove  a  broken  reed  in   the 
grasp  of   our   human  hope.     The   same    Power   whose 
word  of  life  has  been  kept  up  to  man's  coming  upon 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE     267 

this  earth,  will  not  at  last,  and  with  sudden  infidelity, 
break  troth  to  our  human  heart.  Surely  mind  has  not 
been  called  forth  to  know,  in  order  that  after  a 
moment's  passing  glance  it  might  be  tossed  back  into 
oblivion.  The  human  heart  has  not  been  made  simply 
that  it  might  be  broken.  The  scientific  principle  of 
prophecy  from  the  world's  hunger  has  proved  thus  far 
to  be  true  to  the  history  of  life ;  and  as  it  is  true  up  to 
the  hunger  and  thirst  of  man's  spirit  for  the  living  God, 
we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  will  at  last  turn 
false  in  our  most  essential  life,  and  immortal  need. 
Hunger,  seemingly  cruel  at  first,  restless,  importunate, 
eager  —  hunger,  through  which  life  nevertheless  has  been 
led  far  up  —  hunger,  itself  transformed  and  transfigured 
in  man's  soul,  is  crowned  at  last  with  a  beatitude: 
Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteous- 
ness, for  they  shall  be  filled.  Upon  this  highest  height 
of  evolution  and  of  history  we  behold  our  humanity 
transfigured,  ascending,  glorified  in  the  Son  of  man. 
In  him  the  life  was  light.  Life  had  come  in  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  Father  to  its  full  self -revelation.  In  Him  life 
and  immortality  —  the  final  immortality  of  life  —  were 
brought  to  light:  for  of  Him  disciples  of  old  were  saying, 
and  of  Him,  in  view  of  nature's  prophecy  of  the  com- 
pletion of  life  in  the  highest,  it  should  be  confessed: 
It  was  not  possible  that  he  should  be  holden  of  death : 
Thou  wilt  not  give  thy  Holy  One  to  see  corruption. ^ 

There  is  another  prominent  aspect  of  this  principle  of 
completion,  which  has  hardly  been  noticed  in  the  whole 
literature  of  the  subject,  but  which  is  clearly  and  strik- 

1  Acts  ii.  24  :  xiii.  35. 


268  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO  FAITH 

ingly  presented  in  nature's  own  evolutionary  argument 
for  man's  immortality.  It  is  this:  the  will  to  live  is 
a  supreme  achievement  of  evolution ;  and  the  energy  of 
man's  will  to  live  is  to  be  taken  into  the  account  as  a 
factor  of  his  future  evolution.  The  will  to  live  is  a 
product  of  evolution ;  but  when  once  it  has  been  clearly 
and  consciously  gained  in  man's  life,  it  enters  as  a 
distinct  factor  into  the  course  of  evolution,  and  hence- 
forth its  possible  w^orking  and  results  are  to  be  consid- 
ered in  any  scientific  forecast  of  futurity.  We  may 
trace  the  will  to  live  from  the  first  stirrings  of  animal 
existence.  It  is  a  primal  motion,  an  original  impulse, 
a  natural  instinct  of  life.  It  grows  and  gathers 
strength,  until  in  the  higher  animals  it  becomes  domi- 
nant, and  renders  subservient  to  itself  the  developed 
powers  of  muscle  and  sense,  of  attack  and  flight,  of 
instinct  and  intelligence.  In  man  this  will  to  live  be- 
comes a  clear,  spiritual  flame,  and  in  it  everything  for- 
eign to  it  is  consumed,  until  it  too  seems  quenched 
forever.     But  can  a  flame  so  spiritual  be  quenched  ? 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  will  to  live  not  only 
resists  hostile  and  destructive  forces,  but  also  it  shows 
signs  of  constructive  and  adaptive  power,  by  which  it 
fashions  new  conditions  to  its  use,  and  makes  for  itself 
more  fitting  environment.  Man's  strong  will  to  live 
evinces  its  self -maintaining  energy  by  marked  reactions 
upon  the  physiological  environment;  the  physician  is 
aided  by  it;  disease  is  held  in  abeyance  by  it;  it  seems 
at  times  to  have  power  to  put  off  death.  Moreover,  it 
manifests  its  higher  spiritual  energy  as  power  to  suffer 
and  to  strive,   to  think  and  study,  to  achieve  and  to 


PROPHETIC  VALUE   OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE     269 

love,  without  heed  of  lime  or  fear  of  death.  This 
deathless  will  to  live  is  a  force  among  the  nature-forces, 
which  may  have  more  meaning  for  our  future  life  than 
has  been  dreamed  of  in  our  pliilosophy.  It  often  shines 
forth  most  brightl}^  and  is  most  triumphal,  in  the  very 
hour  of  deatli.  If  the  strong  immortal  will  to  live  of  a 
thouglitful,  noble  man  be  not  merely  a  self-assertive 
force,  but  also  a  creative  energy  of  life,  having  power 
to  adapt  to  itself  other  conditions  and  elements  of  being, 
although  it  must  let  this  mortal  body  go;  then  clearly 
immortality  may  be  a  possible  achievement  of  the  spirit 
Avhich  is  in  man,  as  well  as  the  gift  of  God.  If  the 
adaptive  and  constructive  will  to  live  is  in  man  the  last 
and  highest  result  of  evolution  so  far,  then  its  continu- 
ance and  self -maintenance,  in  other  and  perhaps  better 
conditions,  would  not  be  a  thing  incredible;  it  would 
be  rather  the  natural  completion  of  the  will  to  live, 
which  we  should  scientifically  expect  to  see  fulfilled,  as 
we  expect  any  other  energy  in  evolution  to  be  used  to 
its  utmost. 

The  will  to  live,  in  which  the  fear  of  death  is  over- 
come, has  shown  its  most  forceful  virtue  in  the  supreme 
souls  of  human  history.  It  was  declared  in  Socrates' 
defiance  of  death ;  —  you  may  kill  Socrates,  if  you  can 
catch  Socrates.  It  has  shone  in  the  triumph  of  the 
martyrs;  it  has  sounded  in  the  jubilance  of  the  heroes; 
it  has  lighted  the  faces  of  the  saints.  These  go  not 
down  to  death  in  passive  resignation  merely:  they  go 
up  through  death  in  active  exercise  of  spiritual  faith  to 
greet  the  promise ;  in  dying  they  make  death  subject  to 
them.      In   the   consciousness   of   man   at  its   hisrhest 


270  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

power,  even  in  the  mind  that  ^A'as  in  Jesus,  the  spiritual 
will  of  life  was  constant,  abounding,  unconquerable. 
The  Son  of  man  would  say  to  his  friends,  as  one  of  us 
might  say  of  any  earthly  purpose,  naturally,  and  with- 
out shadow  of  doubt:  I  live;  —  For  as  the  Father  hath 
life  in  himself,  even  so  gave  he  to  the  Son  to  have  life 
in  himself :  —  I  go  to  the  Father :  —  I  come  again :  —  but 
now  I  come  to  thee :  —  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and 
your  Father,  unto  my  God  and  your  God.  Thus  the 
will  to  live  as  the  Son  of  God,  a  will  in  itself  invincible 
and  divine,  overcomes  death,  and  cannot  be  held  in 
corruption.  ^ 

There  is  one  feature  of  the  natural  ascent  of  life  to 
personality,  and  its  prophecy  of  completed  life,  which 
all  along  has  been  implied  in  the  argument  from  unfin- 
ished nature,  which  we  should  not  leave  without  a  word 
of  explicit  declaration.  We  have  observed  that  the 
process  of  individualization  in  nature,  which  ends  in 
distinct  personality,  does  not  leave  the  individual  in 
separation  from  the  world;  it  is  rather  the  perfect  adap- 
tation of  life  in  self-consciousness  to  the  universe  with- 
out. Personality  is  not,  we  have  remarked,  fully 
conceived  as  a  thing  by  itself;  it  exists  in  its  relations 
to  all  around  it.  It  rises  indeed  above  nature,  but 
never  out  of  the  g-reat  whole  of  the  creation  in  which  it 
has  share  and  part.  It  is  life  in  conscious  oneness  with 
the  universe,  —  life  at  home  in  all  the  worlds.  It  is 
life  possessing  happy  sense  of  its  belonging  to  all  around 
it,  even   as   the  son,  and   not  as   the   servant,  in   the 

1  For  further  consideration  of  this  argument  for  immortality  from  the 
immortal  will  to  live,  see  the  author's  Personal  Creeds,  Chap.  vi. 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED   NATURE     271 

Father's  house.  Personality  is  itself  more  than  a  single 
isolated  point  of  sensitiveness;  it  is  a  social  achievement 
and  an  entering  into  possession  of  all  life;  it  can  look 
abroad  and  up  to  the  stars,  and  in  its  glad  Christian 
self-consciousness  sing  to  itself,  — All  things  are  yours; 
whether  human  friends,  or  the  world,  or  life,  or  death, 
or  things  present,  or  things  to  come;  all  are  yours;  and 
ye  are  Christ's;  and  Christ  is  God's. ^ 

The  prophecy  of  immortality,  therefore,  so  far  as  we 
may  read  it  from  the  evolution  of  individuality,  is  a 
promise  likewise  of  social  immortality.  The  eternal 
kind  of  life,  even  now  as  we  enter  anticipatively  into 
its  worth  and  joy,  is  communion  of  spirit.  We  pass 
into  it  and  have  it,  as  w^e  share  it  with  others,  —  the 
living  and  the  dead.  Only  in  communion  with  the  uni- 
versal life  is  our  individuality  to  be  made  full.  We  lose 
our  self -life  that  we  may  gain  it  in  fellowship  with  the 
Father  and  with  the  Son.  The  life,  which  is  life  in- 
deed, is  fellowship  with  the  human  and  the  divine. 
Fellowship  is  life's  last,  greatest,  and  immortal  word. 

The  same  principle  of  completion,  therefore,  wdiich 
raises  the  scientific  presumption  of  the  future  continu- 
ance of  the  individual  life,  justifies  further  the  Christian 
faith  that  it  shall  be  a  life  likewise  of  perfected  touch 
and  contact  with  the  outward  creation,  and  of  supreme 
satisfaction  in  the  comradeships  of  kindred  spirits. 
Personal  immortality,  in  a  w^ord,  involves  in  its  comple- 
tion social  immortality.  He  in  whom  the  life  came  to 
full  revelation  as  the  light  of  the  world,  describes  its 
completion  after  a  little  while,  not  in  material  imagery, 

1  1  Cor.  iii.  22. 


272  THROUGH  SCIENCE    TO   FAITH 

or  outward  splendors,  but  in  simple  words  of  intimate 
personal  relations  and  friendships:  Ye  shall  see  me 
again:  I,  thou,  we,  — all  made  perfect  in  one.  Such  is 
the  possible  social  completion  of  man's  life  in  the  glory 
which  the  Son  had  from  the  beginning  with  the  I  ather, 
and  which  he  prayed  that  the  disciples  might  share  with 
the  Son,  that  all  might  be  one. 

To  follow  this  hope  of  social  immortality  in  further 
Christian  assurance  of  it,  would  lead  us  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  argument  for  eternal  life  from  nature's 
present  achievement  and  prophecy.  But  while  natural 
theology  can  only  lead  us  to  the  threshold,  it  leaves  us 
before  an  open  door,  waiting  for  supernal  revelation. 
We  are  not  yet  born  into  this  larger  world,  but  nature 
has  formed  and  nourished  us  for  its  liberty.  Man's 
life,  still  cherished  in  nature's  womb,  feels  the  stirrings 
within  it  of  unknown  powers,  and  has  present  embryonic 
consciousness  of  its  immortal  worth.  First  is  that 
which  is  natural ;  and  afterwards  —  its  sure  fulfilment  — 
is  that  which  is  spiritual.  What  things  are  prepared 
for  us  in  some  large,  sunny  realm,  into  which  we  shall 
be  born  again  through  death,  and  how  in  some  fair  har- 
mony with  nature  our  spiritual  life  shall  be  made  per- 
fect, —  these  things  the  heart  of  man  cannot  conceive : 
this  is  the  Christian  hope  of  the  glorification  of  life  in 
the  resurrection.  We  know  not  what  it  shall  be :  but 
we  know  that  it  shall  fulfil  the  law  and  the  prophets  of 
nature,  while  it  shall  transcend  them  all. 

There  is  a  wonderful  passage  in  a  letter  to  the 
Romans  of  the  chief  of  the  apostles,  in  which  there  oc- 
curs an  expression  which  could  not  have  sprung  from  any 


PROPHETIC  VALUE  OF  UNFINISHED  NATURE    273 

of  the  literatures  or  philosophies  of  his  age,  but  which 
witnesses  to  the  new  Christian  conception  of  the  crea- 
tion in  its  spiritual  unity  and  hope.  We  may  bring 
fresh  meanings  to  it  from  our  modern  sciences,  and  use 
it  as  the  summation,  in  a  word,  of  the  highest  interpre- 
tation of  nature  which  we  may  learn  from  our  scientific 
studies  of  its  origins,  its  struggle  for  existence,  its  in- 
creasing vital  values,  its  entrance  of  death  for  the  sake 
of  life,  its  preparation  of  the  way  for  the  coming  of  the 
person  and  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  from  its 
unfinished  life  in  its  sure  word  of  prophecy:  with 
richer  knowledge  of  evolution  than  Saint  Paul  could  have 
dreamed  to  fill  the  words  with  luminous  meanings,  at 
the  summit  of  the  century's  science  we  may  lift  up  our 
hearts  and  confess :  For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  crea- 
tion waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God,  For 
the  creation  icas  subjected  to  vanity^  not  of  its  own  will, 
hut  by  reason  of  him  who  subjected  it,  in  hope  that  the 
creation  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of 
corruption  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children 
of  God. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acquired  characters,  205. 

Esthetic  sense,  evolution  of,  154. 

Agnostics,  52. 

Alcoholism,  immunity  from,  217. 

AlgiE,  139. 

Amceha,  21,  42,  62,  248. 

Andrews,  Mrs.  E.  A.,  72. 

Aristotle,  230. 

Ascaris,  32,  36,  69. 

Asclepiadce,  141. 

Atoms,  dance  of,  56. 

Augustine,  St.,  101. 

Bateson,  W.,  243. 
Beauty,  criticism  of  utilitarian  the- 
ory of,  138. 

Darwinian  account  of,  133. 

existence  of,  when  not  useful. 
141. 

for  reason,  154,  158. 

interpretation  of,  154. 

moral,  158. 

moral  aspect  of  natural,  157. 

utilitarian  theory  of,  137. 
Biology,  the  higher,  8,  84. 

province  of,  5. 

uncertainties  of,  7. 
Birds,  colors  of,  135. 
Brooks,  W.  K.,  101,  171,  230,  239. 
Browning,  Robert,  240. 
Bunge,  G.,  167. 
Butler,  Bishop,  1. 
Biitschli,  ().,  163,  232. 
Buxton,  Sir  Thomas  Fowell,  62. 

Cell,  contents  of,  27,  31. 
co-ordination  of,  71. 
discover V  of,  13. 


division  of,  33. 

germ  and  somatic,  36. 

individuation  of,  165. 

nutrition  of,  165. 

relative  time  in  differentiations 
of,  74. 

structure  of,  60. 
Chalmers,  Thomas,  8. 
Chance,  theory  of,  54. 
Chemical  Physiology,  166. 
Child,  C.  M.,  73,  74,  75. 
Christian  Science,  106,  209. 
Chromosomes,  nature  of,  33. 

number  of,  69. 
Clavelina,  89. 
Color,  autumnal,  140. 

elemental  in  nature,  148. 

in  lower  organisms,  139. 

organic,    photographic    sensi- 
tiveness to,  148. 

protective,  134. 

use  of,  in  flowers,  137. 
Completion,  evidence  of    principle 
of,  231. 

in  man's  life,  258. 

prophetic   value   of    the   prin- 
ciple of,  254. 
Conn,  H.  W.,  243. 
Conservation  of  energy,  law  of,  13, 

263. 
Conservatism,  of  the  germ,  205. 

of  organisms,  207. 
Cope,  E.  D.,  207,  244,  263. 
Courtship,  natural  history  of,  135. 
Critical  points,  in  evolution,  262. 
Crystal,  appearaaice  of,  in  evolution, 
163. 

compared  with  cell,  19,  163. 


278 


INDEX 


Cytology,  7,  28. 
Cijinonomns,  197. 

Dante,  25,  53. 

Darwin,  Charles,  2,  32,  79,  80,  134, 
135,  136,  137,  138,    145,  241, 
243,  245. 
Darwin,  F.,  15. 
Death,  critical  point  in  life,  264. 

for  the  sake  of  life,  199. 

relation  to  the  fall,  199,  201. 

spirit,  active  in,  269. 
Descent  of  man,  2. 
Degeneracy,  see  retrogression. 
Development,  embryological,  33. 

in  inorganic  world,  236. 
Direction,  embryological,  68. 

character  of,  95. 

fact  of,  to  be  known,  50. 

in  the  inorganic  w^orlil,  53. 

in  the  organic  world,  59. 

in  history,  129. 

intelligent  character  of,  108. 

moral  in  nature,  116. 

summary  of  facts  concerning, 
91. 
Driesch,  H.,  231. 
Drummond,  Henry,  23,  24,  225. 

ECIIINODERM,  72. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  185. 
Eimer,  T.,  149. 
Elements,  evolution  of,  161. 
Embryology,  68. 

recapitulation  in,  40. 
Energy,  conservation  of,  13,  263. 

law  of  release  of  spiritual,  220. 
Environment,  development  of,  258. 

further  adaptations  of  to  man's 
life,  255. 
Eryoniais,  197. 
Eternal  life,  260. 
Ether,  the,  55. 
Evil,  problem  of,  129,  217. 
Engkna,  14,  43. 

Evolution,  arrest  of  in  man's  body, 
181. 


by  atrophy,  197. 

change  of  order  in,  57. 

factors  of,  83. 

further  possibility  of  for  man, 
256. 

geological  progression  of,  56. 

intelligible  as  spiritual,  178. 

method  of,  84. 

of  man's  environment,  258. 

of  scientific  instruments,  257. 

theories  of,  79. 

unknown  factor  of.  111. 

use  of  the  word,  4. 
Ewart,  J.  C,  83. 
Eye,  evolution  of,  41. 

increasing  revelation  to,  45. 

loss  of,  197. 

Fall,  evolutionary  doctrine  of  the, 

201. 
Fertilization,  of  flowers,  methods  of, 

144. 
Fischel,  A.,  210. 
Fiske,  John,  188. 
Fitness,  significance  of,  102. 
Foraminifera,  138. 
Form,  development  of  for  intelli- 
gence,  238. 

precedes  variation,  91. 

progress  of,  235. 

relation  of  to  function,  235. 
Francis,  Saint,  16. 
Fry,  Mr.  Justice,  143. 
Function,  development  of,  235. 

Galton,  F.,  195. 
Goal,  in  nature,  247. 
Goethe,  49. 
Gray,  Asa,  14,  147. 
Groos,  K.,  124. 

IIaeckel,  E.,  11. 

Happiness,  man's   compared   with 

animal,  119. 
Herder,  J.  G.  von,  261. 
Hertwig,   O.,  66,   83,85,  112,  209, 

231.232. 


INDEX 


279 


Higher  criticism,  of  science,  8. 
Huuger,  })redictive  value  of,  267. 
Hydra,  66,  102,  208. 

Immortality,  naturaluess  of,  262, 
266. 
persona],  26.'). 
social,  270. 
Individual,  first  step  towards,  161. 
increase  of  value  of,  187. 
perfection  of,  265. 
survival  value  of,  190,  266. 
tendency  towards,  160. 
worth  of,  as  an  end  in  itself, 
183,  189. 
Infancy,  prolongation  of,  188. 
Infusoria,  63,  87,  117,  126. 
Insects,  eyes  of,  145. 

sense  of  color,  145. 
Intelligence,  increasing  release  of, 
220. 
animal,  168. 

directive   action   of,  how  con- 
ceivable, 110,  115. 
evolution  of,  21. 
evidence  of,  in  natural  direc- 
tion, 108. 
human  related  to  animal,  22. 
Instinct,  animal  compared  with  hu- 
man, 183. 


Jennings,  H.  S., 


Jones,  E.  G.,  199. 
Joylessness,  of  lower  organic  world, 
126. 


Kant,  157. 
Kassowitz,  M.,  142. 
Kepler,  67. 

Labor,  division  of,  62. 

Lamarck,  82. 

Laplace,  250. 

Laws,  not  identical,  23. 

Le  Conte  J.,  57. 

Lens,  reproduction  of,  210. 


Life,  a  new  order,  57. 

communal  in  nature,  64. 

connection  with  inorganic,  16. 

dark  side  of,  120. 

duration  of,  188. 

educable  matter  of,  18. 

mechanism  of,  76. 

origin  of,  17. 

pliysico-chemical    theories    of, 
77. 

waste  of,  pre-natal,  122. 
Lillie,  F.  R.,  76. 
Limitation,  law  of,  127. 

sign  of,  105. 
Lockyer,  N.,  56,  102. 

Man,   condition  of  further   ascent 
of,  256. 

end  of  physiological  evolution 
in,  256. 

oneness  of  with  nature,  173. 

organic  approach  to,  240. 

unfinished  life  of,  255,  260. 
Marshall,  Milnes,  40. 
Materialism,  75,  175. 
Matter,  origin  of,  55. 
Maxwell,  J.  Clerk,  96,  99,  113, 114, 

115. 
Mechanism,  in  biology,  85. 

insufficiency  of,  87. 

of  cell-division,  214. 
Metabolism,  165. 
Metazoa,  64. 

Method,  of  this  discussion,  5. 
Mikrogromia  socialis,  63. 
Mind,   advent   of   in   nature,    172. 

directive    energy    in    matter, 
109,    239. 

])ossible  relation  to  matter,  261. 
Mohr,  K.  F.,  13. 
Morgan,    Lloyd,    21,  83,   221,  229, 

234. 
Morgan,  T.  H.,  210,  229. 
Morris,  J.,  98,  176. 
Mozley,  Canon,  157. 
^lutations-theory,  243. 
Mi/xomi/cetes,  63. 


280 


INDEX 


Nageli,  228,  230. 
Natural  and  spiritual,  relation  be- 
tween, 10. 

law  in  the  spiritual  world,  23. 
Natural  selection,  80,  241. 

in  man's  development,  246. 

not  first  in  nature,  90. 

insufficiency  of,  80,  84, 138,  241. 

verification  of,  242. 
Natural  theology,  the  old  and  the 

new,  3. 
Nautilus,  44. 
Nemec,  B.,  15. 
Nemertea,  140. 
Neo-Darwinians,  206. 
Neo-Lamarckians,  82,  206. 
Newbigin,  M.  I.,  148,  149. 
Newcomb,  S.,  111. 

Okder,  enumeration  of  kinds  of, 

97. 
Orderliness,  sign  of,  9.5,  98. 
Organization,  primal  fact  of,  61. 
Organism,  standpoint  of,  73. 
Osborn,  H.  F.,  79. 

Paley,  4. 
Pantheism,  175. 
Parasitism,  198. 
Parker,  T.  J.,  14,  103. 
Pascal,  133. 
Pearson,  K.,  86. 
Perfection,  principle  of,  228. 
Personality,  acquisition  of,  170. 

conception  of,  175. 

meaning  of  advent  of,  179. 

specialization  of  spiritual   en- 
ergy, 171. 

theories  of  origin  of,  171. 
Physiology,  chemical,  77. 
Plants,   resemblances    to    animals, 
15. 

sensation  in,  15. 
Plateau,  F.,  146. 
Play,  origin  of,  123. 

perversion  of,  125. 

utility  of,  124. 


Pleasure,  growth  of  vital  capacity 
of,  118. 

increase  over  pain,  120. 
Principles,  of  nature,  continuity  of, 
24,  158. 

importance  of,  6. 
Progress,  of  evolution,  theories  of, 
241. 

signs  of,  in  history,  130. 
Prophecy,  natural  principle  of,  250, 

253. 
Protamoeba,  168. 
Protococcus,  168. 
Protoplasm,  continuity  of,  72. 

structure  of,  29. 
Protozoa,  64,  205. 

Providence,  in   the   least   and  the 
greatest,  59. 

in  timing  events,  73. 

in  development  of  cells,  68. 

Quality,  throughout  nature,  109. 

Radiolarian,  224. 

Reason,    unifying     principles     of, 

24. 
Redemption,    natural    law    of    on 
higher  plane,  219. 
Christian  doctrine  of,  219. 
Reformative  power,  212. 
Regeneration,  diminution  of  power 
of,  209,  215. 
in  personal  life,  216. 
mechanics  of  natural,  214. 
moral  continuance  of,  218. 
of  lost  parts,  208. 
physiological,  217. 
Reid,  C.  A.,  216. 
Responsibility,  entrance  of  moral, 

200. 
Retrogression,  fact  of,  in  evolution, 
193. 
Galton's  law  of,  195. 
involved  in  variation,  194. 
provided    for    in    progress    of 
evolution,  202. 


INDEX 


281 


Revelation,  in  the  cell,  27. 

in  liuman  history,  47. 

method  of,  26,  38,  39,  41. 

natural  principles  of,  46. 
Romanes,  G.  J.,  102,  129,  177. 
Roux,  W.,  211. 
Ruskin,  John,  153. 

Sacrifick,  and  service,  relation  of, 
224. 

diminishing  necessity  of,  224. 
Sandeman,  G.,  139. 
Schleiden,  13. 
Schwann,  13. 

Science,  epochs  in   relation   of   to 
Faith,  2. 

modesty  of  true,  8. 

proplietic  principle  of,  251. 
Selection,  sexual,  135. 
Sensitiveness,  growth  of,  117. 

of  living  matter  to  light,  42. 
Sentiency,  animal,  168. 

increase  of,  169. 
Service,  law  of  increase  of,  224. 
Sex,  disappearance  of,  191. 

first  traces  of,  65. 
Shaler,   N.    S.,    18,    139,    147,   165, 

237. 
Simroth,  H.,  148. 
Sin,  possible  in  evolution,  201. 

remoter  good  from  history  of, 
204. 
Siphonophores,  66. 
Slime-moulds,  development  of,  75. 
Smyth,  N.,  27,  191,  270. 
Sou  of  man,  reveals  power  of  life, 
267. 

his  will  to  live  unconquerable, 
270. 
Soul,  connection  with  body  at  birth 

and  death,  263. 
Species,  death  of,  191. 

preservation  of,  184. 
Spencer,  Herbert.  5,  123,  167. 
Spirit,  coming  age  of,  261. 

priority  of,  177. 
Spirojijra,  150,  167. 


Stimulation,   organic   response   to, 

87. 
Strassen,  ().  L.  zur,  76. 
Substitution,  in  nature,  211. 

in  tlieology,  22.'5. 
Sufferings,  of  aninuils,  121. 
Symbiosis,  224. 

Theology,  natural,   need  of  new, 

3,  9. 
Thomson,  J.  A.,  79,  124,212. 
Titon,  210. 

Trembley,  Abbe',  208. 
Truth,  love  of,  1. 
Tyler,  J.  M.,  240. 
Tyndall,  J.,  153. 

Uglines.s,  reason  for,  151. 

tendency  to  remove,  152. 
Unity,  genetic,  12,  22,  80. 

of  vegetable  and  animal  king- 
doms, 14. 

of  creation,  11. 

spiritual,  23,  180,  273. 

Vampyrella  SpirogjjTfc,  selection 

of  matter  by,  167. 
Variations,  cause  of,  243. 

transmission  of,  81. 
Varieties,  useful   in   man's   condi- 
tions, 254. 
Verworn,  M.,  18,  115,  166,  167,  247, 

248. 
Vicariousness,  naturalness  of,  223. 
in  Christian  redeni])tii)n,  223. 
Vital     value,     characteristics     of, 
104. 
increase  of,  in  history,  129. 
law  of  increase  of,  103. 
VorticellidcE,  138. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  121, 122, 136, 140, 
144,  145,  151,  24.5,  256. 

Walton,  Izaak,  129. 

Ward,  J.,  .50,  111,  177,  236,  249. 

Wealth,  increase  of  moral  use  of, 
130. 


282 


INDEX 


Weismann,  81,  82,  187. 
Whittier,  J.  G.,  264. 
Will,  limit  of  the,  221. 

the  will  to  live,  268. 
Wilson,  E.  B.,  16,  19,  71,  72,  76, 

88,  89. 
Wolff,  C.  F.,  I. 


Wolff,  G.,  210f 
Wordsworth,  William,  46. 

Yucca  moth,  the,  184,  233. 

Zooids,  65. 

Zoothamnium  arbuscula,  64. 


